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Division. 

Section  ,_,.. 
No 


Christian  Science 

An  Exposition  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  Wonderful  Discov- 
ery, including  its  Legal  Aspects 

A  Plea  for  Children  and  other 
H  elpless  S  ick 


BY. 

WILLIAM  A.  PURRINGTON 

Lecturer  in  the  University  and  Bellevue  Hospital  Medical  College^  and 

in  the  A^eiu  York  College  of  Dentistry  upon  Lazv  in  Relation 

to  Medical  Practice,  one  of  the  Authors  of 

"  A  System  of  Legal  Medicine  " 


NEW  YORK 

E.  B.  TREAT  &  COMPANY 

341-243  West  23D  Street 

1900 


"  Christian  Science  demonsti-ates  that  the  patient  who  pays  whatever  he 
i?  able  to  pay  for  being  healed  is  more  apt  to  recover  than  he  wlio  with- 
bolJs  a  slight  equivalent  for  health." 

— From  Preface  to  Miseellafieous   ITn'/iro^s  of  Mrs.  EiUy. 


Copyright 

By  E.  B.  Treat  &  Co 

1900 


PREFACE. 

It  has  seemed  worth  while  to  collect  these  papers, 
expounding  the  dangerous  teachings  of  our  latter-day 
delusion,  Christian  Science,  and  the  theory  and  limita- 
tions of  medical  legislation,  if  only  for  the  sake  of 
children  and  helpless  adults.  Thanks  are  due  to  the 
Proprietor  and  Editors  of  the  North  American  lieciem 
for  permission  to  reprint  the  articles  written  for  that 
periodical  at  the  instance  of  my  friend  David  A. 
Munro,  Esq.,  and  to  the  publisher  and  editor  of  the 
Medical  Record^  and  the  Xew  York  ^un  for  the  use 
of  the  matter  copyrighted  by  them.  They  have 
proved  less  tenacious  of  their  copyrights  than  is  the 
discoverer  of  Christian  Science  of  hers. 

The  papers  have  not  been  altered  from  their  origi- 
nal form  in  order  to  avoid  in  the  bound  volume 
repetitions  due  to  treating  the  same  subject  before 
different  audiences.  When  line  upon  line  and  precept 
upon  precept  are  needed  repetitions  are  not  vain. 

Four  of  these  papers  deal  with  the  exposition  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings,  her  own  account  of  herself  and 
the  status  of  her  cult  before  the  law.  Another  treats 
of  the  educational  effect  and  policy  of  medical  legisla- 
tion, and  the  last  shows  how  by  enforcement  of  medical 
laws  not  consonant  with  public  opinion  the  apothecary 
in  England  became  a  general  practitioner  of  medicine. 

The  best  proof  that  the  articles  in  the  North  Ameri- 
can Beviev:  are  fair  expositions  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  biogra- 
phy and  teachings  is  that  their  accuracy  has  not  been 
denied,  so  far  as  their  author  knows.  How  could  it 
be  when  they  consist  for  the  most  part  of  her  own 
words  quoted  by  book  and  page  so  that  error  might 

3 


4  CHKISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

be  easily  corrected  ?  l^o  willful  misstatement  has 
been  made,  and  none,  it  is  believed,  unwittingly.  The 
patient  reader  will  see  that  there  is  here  no  denial, 
but  rather  explicit  and  repeated  admissions  of  the  ex- 
traordinary influence  of  suggestion,  expectant  atten- 
tion and  mental  excitation  however  caused  upon  the 
body.  It  is  not  denied  that  hysterical  patients,  the 
morbidly  introspective,  the  worriers,  the  malades  ini- 
aginaires,  the  victims  of  obscure  nervous  ailments 
have  been  helped  by  Faith  Cure,  Christian  Science, 
Mental  Healing,  Mesmerism,  Hypnotism,  Yitapathy, 
and  the  like.  But  it  is  denied  that  eyery  jyost  hoc  is  a 
propter  hoc,  and  that  because,  for  instance,  asthma, 
which  often  yields  to  a  change  of  residence,  or  wears 
out  by  lapse  of  time,  and  childbirth,  a  normal  func- 
tion, sometimes  run  successful  courses  under  such 
methods,  therefore  gross  ignorance  and  presumption 
are  to  be  substituted  without  restraint  or  liability  in 
daily  life  for  demonstrably  eflicient  skill  and  science. 
We  know  that  a  surgeon  can  staunch  the  gush  of 
blood  from  a  severed  artery,  that  the  physician  has 
sweet  oblivious  antidotes  for  pain,  and,  if  called  in 
time,  can,  often  counteract  the  deadly  work  of  poison. 
Eddyism  cannot  do  these  things.  Will  Mrs.  Eddy  or 
any  of  her  disciples  venture  by  personal  experiment 
under  test  conditions  to  prove  that  Christian  Science 
can  counteract  by  its  arguments  the  effects  of  mor- 
phine, atropine  or  strj^chnine  ? 

AVhat  must  be  obvious  to  any  one  who  Avill  think 
but  a  moment  is  that  suggestion,  expectant  attention 
and  such  mental  stimuli  cannot  operate  upon  babies 
as  they  do  upon  adults  ;  and  accordingly,  as  one  would 


PREFACE.  5 

naturally  expect,  we  find  some  of  the  most  horrible 
instances  of  criminal  wickedness  on  the  part  of  Chris- 
tian  Scientists,  Peculiar   People   and  like  faddist  in 
their    treatment   of   children.     One   object   lesson   is 
worth   a  wilderness   of  words,  and   the  photograph 
prefixed  to  these  papers  is  a  volume  in  itself.     I  am 
indebted   for   its   use   to   Charles  H.  Tag,  M.  D.,  of 
Brooklyn.     The  case,  referred  to  on  page  113,  was 
one  of  gangrene  of  the  left  foot  of  a  child  twelve  years 
old ;  the  lower  ends  of  tibia  and  fibula  being  exposed 
and  the  foot  attached  to  the  leg  only  by  the  internal 
lateral  ligaments  of  the  ankle.    Physicians  advised  am- 
putation ;   but  an  ignorant  woman  was  called  in  who 
guaranteed  by  prayers,  passes  and  salves  to  effect  a 
cure.     She  professed  belief  in  Christian  Science  and 
mental  treatment,  but-  also  in  the  efficacy  of  remedies, 
the  use  of  which  made  her  conviction  possible  under 
the  law  of  JN'ew  York.     She  was  not  a  strict  Eddyite, 
but  had  a  system  and  book  of  her  own.     Eventually 
amputation  was  performed  by  Dr.  Blaisdell  assisted 
by  Drs.  Tag  and  Caffrey.     The  operation  was  success- 
ful and  the  child  is  now  in  good  health.     Is  it  not 
horrible  to  think  of  cases  of  this  sort,  of  contagious 
diseases,  of  severed  arteries  and  fractured  limbs  falling 
into  the  hands  of  ignorant  and  audacious  "  Scientists  " 
even  when  patients  are  conscious  and  willing  to  accept 
the  treatment  ?    How  much   worse   it  is  when  the 
patients    are    little    children   or  unconscious    adults 
whose  lives  are  put  by  misguided  kin  or  friends  into 
the  deadly  keeping  of  those  who  lightly  and  boldly 
assume   with   ignorance,   what   the   learned   attempt 
with  eare  and  miso^iving:. 


6  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

The  questions  submitted  to  Mr.  Carol  Norton  as  set 
out  in  the  appendix  remain  unanswered  by  him. 
They  are  the  crux  of  Eddyism.  Would  Mrs.  Eddy 
treat  her  own  severed  artery  by  arguing  with  it  like 
a  congressman?  Would  Mr.  Norton  discuss  a  fish- 
bone out  of  a  child's  throat  ?  If  not,  who  will  deny 
that  the  pretensions  of  the  cult  are"  humbug  and  sham 
of  the  commonest,  wickedest  sort  ? 

It  is  by  no  means  asserted  that  the  disciples  of  Mrs. 
Eddy  are  ignorant  or  unintelligent.  On  the  contrary 
their  sincerity  is  willingly  admitted,  as  well  as  that 
among  them  are  persons  of  unusual  intelligence.  But 
persons  of  intelligence  and  honesty,  ever  since  the 
world  began,  have  been  deluded  in  amazing  fashions 
by  vulgar  and  ignorant  impostors  in  religion,  medicine 
and  finance.  Hope  tells  its  flattering  tale  to  rich  and 
poor,  wise  and  foolish.  All  conditions  of  men  blindly 
follow  false  beacons  of  health  and  wealth,  set  for  them 
by  fanaticism,  greed  and  cunning.  Fortunate  are  they 
who  find  the  true  light  before  shipwreck. 

If  this  exposition  turns  one  Ephraim  from  his  idols ; 
if  it  saves  one  child,  one  woman  in  peril  of  childbirth, 
one  strong  man  in  delirium  from  unnecessary  suffering 
and  death  at  the  hands  of  the  ignorant  and  criminally 
reckless,  it  will  not  have  been  written  in  vain.  And 
because  it  may  happen  that  some  reader  might  wish 
to  find  again  a  droll  absurdity  of  Christian  Science's 
discoverer  wherewith  to  confound  him  who  accepts 
Mrs.  Eddy's  teaching  on  faith  without  knowledge,  a 
sufficiently  copious  index  has  been  made,  and  a  table 
given  of  the  cases  cited  from  law  reports. 

W,  A.  PUBRINGTON. 

59  PVall  Street,  New  York  City, 

December  ijth,  i8gg. 


Contents 

CHAPTER  p^Qj, 

Table  of  Cases  Cited lo 

I.     Christian  Science  and  its  Legal  Aspects 1 1 

II.     The  Case  Against  Christian  Science 37 

III.     Manslaughter,  Christian  Science  and  the  Law 69 

IV.     Christian  Science  before  the  Law gr 

V.     How  Far  can  Legislation  Aid  in  Maintaining  a  Proper  Stand- 
ard of  Medical  Education 123 


VL 


The  Evolution  of  the  Apothecary i^e 


APPENDIX 

A.  The  Claims  of  Christian  Science 165- 

B,  Christian  Science  and  the  Law 17* 

Index ig^ 


ILLUSTRATIONS 
Photograph  of  child  treated  by  incantations  and  salves  .    .    .  Frontispiece 
Copy  of  Charter  of  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College    .    .  & 


(COPY) 
Mo.  1251 


ComitioniDealtb  of  n)a$$acl)u$em. 


!8Se  it  [?r\OWn  That  whereas  Mary  B.  G.  Eddy,  Charles  J. 
Eastman,  James  C.  Howard,  Edgar  S.  Woodbury,  James  Wiley, 
William  F.  Walker  and  Samuel  P.  Bancroft  have  associated 
themselves  with  the  intention  of  forming  a  corporation  under 
the  name  of  the 

/iDassacbusetts  /lDetapbK?stcal  College 

for  the  purpose  of  teaching  pathology,  ontology,  therapeutics, 
moral  science,  metaphysics  and  their  adaptation  to  the  treat- 
meht  of  disease,  and  have  complied  with  the  provisions  of  the 
Statutes  of  this  Commonwealth  in  such  case  made  and  provided, 
as  appears  from  the  certificate  of  the  President,  Treasurer,  and 
Directors  of  said  corporation,  duly  approved  by  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Corporations,  and  recorded  in  this  office: 

IROW,  XTberetore,  I,  Henry  B.  Peirce,  Secretary  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  H)0  HDCrel)^  Gertit^  that 
said  Mary  B.  G.  Eddy,  Charles  J.  Eastman,  James  C.  I^oward, 
Edgar  S.  Woodbury,  James  Wiley,  William  F.  Walker  and 
Samuel   P.    Bancroft,    their  associates    and    successors,    are 


legally  organiied  and  established  as  and  are  hereby  made  an 
existing  corporation  under  the  name  of  the 

Massachusetts  Metaphysical   College, 

with  the  powers,  rights,  and  privileges,  and  subject  to  the 
limitations,  duties,  and  restrictions  which  by  law  appertain 
thereto. 

"CdttUCSS   my  official  sionature  hereunto  subscribed  and 
the  seal  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachu- 
setts  hereunto  affixed  this   thuty-first    day  of 
^-  ^-  January  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 

eight  hundred  and  eighty-one. 

HENRY  B.  PEIRCE, 

Secretary  of  the  Commonxveallh. 


[A  verbatim  copy  of  the  Charter  or  Certificate  of  In- 
corporation of  Mrs.  Eddy's  so-called  Metaphysical  College, 
on  file  in  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts.     See  page  52.] 


Table  of  Reported  Cases  Cited  in  this  Book 


Apothecaries  Co.  v.  Nottingham,  34  L.  T.  R 
(N.  S.)  76      . 

Apothecaries  Co.  v.  Lottinga,  2  M.  &  R.  500 
"     '*    Harrison,  67  L.  T.  232 

Attorney-General  ex  rel.  Apoth.  Co.  v.  College 
of  Physicians,  30  L.  J.  (N.  S.)  Ch.  757 

Bailey  v.  Mogg,  4  Den.  60 

Bibber  v.  Simpson,  59  Me.  181    . 

Commonwealth  vs.  Thomson,  6  Mass.  134 

Corsi  V.  Maretzek,  4  E.  D.  Smith  1 

Davison  v.  Bohlman,  37  Mo.  App.  576    . 

Dent  V.  U.  S.,  129  U.  S.  114 

Eastman  v.  State,  6  Ohio,  Dec.  296 

Eastman  v.  People,  71  111.  App.  236 

Eastman  v.  State,  10  N.  E.  Rep.  97 

Handey  v.  Henson,  4  C.  &  P.  110 

Marsh  v.  Davison,  9  Paige  580 

Morgan  v.  Hallen,  8  Ad.  &  El.  119 

Mormon  Case,  (Reynolds  v.  U.  S.) 

Nelson  v.  Harrington,  72  Wis.  591 

Pierce  v.  Commonwealth,  138  Mass.  165 

People  V.  Phippin,  70  Mich.  6     . 

Regina  v.  Wagstaffe,  10  Cox.  Cr.  Cas.  530 

*'    Senior,  L.  T.  &  L.  J.;  Dec.  17, 1898 

Rice  V.  State,  8  Mo.  561  . 

Rex  V.  Long,  4  C.  &  P.  398 

Reynolds  v.  U.  S.,  98  U.  S.  145 . 

Rose  V.  College  of  Physicians,  3  Salk  17  ;  6  Mod 

44  ;   5  Bro.  Pari  553.  .  .  133, 152,  154, 155 

Smith  V.  Lane,  24  Hnn.  6-32    .  .  79,  106, 110, 153,  177 

State  V.  Biiswell,  40  Neb.  158     .  .  .  82 

"       "    Mylod,  49  Atl.  753  .  .     16,84,85,116 

"       "    Schulz,  55  Iowa  628      .  .  .  75 

Toune  v.  Lady  Gresley,  3  C.  &  P.  581     .  .  155 


154-159 
160 
160 

148,  158 

75 

81 

31,71,112 

134 

81 

14 

81 

82 

80 

155 

74 

155 

30,86,173 

81 

31,  76 

81 

87 

88 

74 

31,88 

30,86 


10 


Christian    Science. 


"  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  "  AND  ITS  LEGAL  ASPECTS.^ 

It  is  asked  if  existing  laws  impose  any  restraint 
upon  treatment  of  the  sick  by  soi-disant  "  Christian 
Scientists,"  and  if  further  legislation  in  that  regard  is 
desirable. 

Mere  charlatanism,  unrelated  to  the  general  wel- 
fare, is  not  a  proper  subject  for  legislation,  but  quack- 
ery imperilling  the  public  health  is.  Whether 
Christian  Science  falls  within  either  category,  every 
intelligent  reader  will  readily  determine  when  aware 
of  its  pretences — charlatanism  being  false  pretension 
to  knowledge,  skill,  power  or  achievement,  and  every 
one  being  a  charlatan  who  falsely  advertises  himself 
as  achieving  greater  results  than  his  fellows,  whether 
he  be  a  medical  man  boasting  of  mysterious  and  im- 
possible cures,  a  religious  teacher  preaching  what  he 
does  not  believe,  or  a  lawyer  proclaiming  achieve- 
ments that  he  has  not  accomplished  or  insuring  re- 
sults beyond  his  power.  The  term  is  not  used  offen- 
sively, nor  with  any  desire  to  impute  insincerity  to 
honest  believers  in  this  new  cult. 

»  From  the  North  American  Review,  March  1S99. 
11 


12  CHEISTIAlSr   SCIENCE. 

To  answer  the  questions  propounded,  we  must 
clearly  understand,  (1)  the  true  purpose  and  proper 
scope  of  legislative  control  over  medical  practice  and 
matters  affecting  the  public  health  ;  (2)  the  methods 
taught  and  adopted  for  the  treatment  of  the  sick  by 
Christian  Scientists ;  (3)  the  status  of  these  people 
under  existing  law. 

For  the  argument's  sake  let  these  concessions  be 
made  at  the  outset :  (1)  mental  stimulus  exercises, 
and  has  been  always  known  to  exercise,  enormous  in- 
fluence over  the  body,  whether  incited  by  such  slight 
causes  as  "  a  harmless,  necessary  cat,"  or  "  woollen  bag- 
pipe," or  by  such  powerful  emotions  as  hope,  fear  or 
faith ;  and  not  only  malades  imaginaires,  but  sick 
persons,  especially  those  afflicted  with  hysterical  dis- 
orders, have  been  and  will  be  restored  to  normal 
health  by  such  stimulus ;  (2)  the  wisest  physicians,  as 
they  will  be  first  to  admit,  not  having  yet  attained 
the  limits  of  medical  or  psychical  knowledge,  are 
fallible,  and  often  make  errors  of  diagnosis ;  (3)  the 
vis  medicatrix  naturae  is  great,  and,  if  there  should 
be  called  to  the  treatment  of  a  sick  man  two  ignorant 
and  incompetent  persons,  one  a  gloomy  believer  in  dos- 
ing by  rule,  the  other  merely  a  cheerful  prophet,  the 
latter  Avould  be,  probably,  the  more  helpful,  or  at  least 
the  less  dangerous ;  (4)  Socrates,  Galileo,  Jenner  and 
many  other  persons  met  with  opposition  in  promulgat- 
ing truth,  just  as  Simon,  the  sorcerer.  Jack  Cade, 
Cagliostro  and  other  impostors  eventually  came  to 
grief  in  their  propaganda  of  lies. 

These  concessions  are  made  because,  in  the  writer's 
experience,  no  charlatan  or  enthusiast  has  yet  appeared 


ITS   LEGAL   ASPECTS.  13 

before  a  legislative  committee  to  plead  for  the  substi- 
tution of  ignorance  in  place  of  medical  learning,  whose 
argument  has  not  been,  in  substance,  this :  There  are 
mysterious  powers  not  possessed  or  fully  understood 
by  physicians,  who  frequently  make  grave  mistakes ; 
cures  often  follow  the  ministrations  of  clairvoyants, 
mediums,  mind  and  faith  curers  ;  new  truth  is  always 
opposed;  therefore,  medical  practice  should  be  un- 
trammelled, and  every  one,  regardless  of  character, 
intelligence,  education  or  training,  should  be  permitted 
to  engage  in  the  business  of  treating  the  sick  for  hire. 
A  postulate  must  also  be  laid  down,  and  he  who  denies 
it  need  read  no  further ;  the  acceptance  of  new  doc- 
trines, or  of  old  ideas  revamped,  by  a  large  number  of 
persons,  of  whom  some  may  be  very  intelligent,  is  not 
of  itself  sufficient  reason  for  general  acceptance  of 
such  doctrines  or  ideas,  or  for  toleration  of  practices 
founded  upon  them ;  especially  if  the  former  be  con- 
trary to  ordinary  experience  and  observation,  and  the 
latter  be  injurious  to  the  public  health,  morals  or 
safety.  It  was  happily  said  by  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  of  Bishop  Berkeley's  belief  in  tar  water  as  a 
specific  for  pretty  nearly  all  the  ills  of  man,  that  it 
*'  exhibits  the  entire  insufficiency  of  exalted  wisdom, 
immaculate  honesty,  and  vast  general  acquirements  to 
make  a  good  physician  of  a  great  bishop  ; "  while,  of 
Berkeley  himself,  the  wise  and  witty  Doctor  said: 
"  He  was  an  illustrious  man,  but  he  held  two  very  odd 
opinions  ;  that  tar  water  was  everything  and  that  the 
material  universe  was  nothing." 

Public  health  laws,  including  therein  statutes  regu- 
lating  medical  practice,  should   be  and  are  framed 


14  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

solely  to  protect  the  public,  by  providing  against  such 
harmful  practices  as  adulterations  of  food  and  drugs, 
the  spread  of  contagious  diseases,  maintenance  of  un- 
sanitary conditions  and  medical  treatment  of  the  sick 
by  unqualified  persons.  That  the  state  may  constitu- 
tionally and  justly  exercise  its  police  power  to  protect 
health  is  by  adjudication  established  beyond  cavil,  and 
by  common  consent  so  thoroughly  accepted  that  if  a 
pest-house  or  open  cess-pool  were  established  near  the 
residence  of  the  founder  of  Christian  Science,  she 
would  doubtless  apply,  successfully,  to  the  Courts  or 
the  Health  Board  to  abate  the  nuisance,  notwithstand- 
ing her  teaching  that  a  ''  calm  Christian  state  of  mind 
is  a  better  preventive  of  contagion  than  a  drug,  or  any 
possible  sanative  method."  ^  The  justification  of  med- 
ical licensing  laws  is  that  the  overwhelming  majority 
of  sensible  men,  at  all  times,  have  believed  that  knowl- 
edge and  training  are  essential  to  qualify  a  man  to 
cope  with  disease ;  and,  for  this  reason,  the  highest 
courts  of  many  States  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  in  Dent's  case,^  have  affirmed  the  con- 
stitutional power  of  a  State  to  enact  laws  forbidding 
unqualified  persons  to  practice  medicine,  and  establish- 
ing general  tests  of  such  qualification. 

This  is  not  the  occasion  to  review  the  Medical  Acts 
of  the  several  States.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  none 
of  them  prohibits  or  prescribes  any  special  system  of 
therapeutics  or  practice.      To  do   that  would   block 

»  Misc.  Works,  p.  229.  Where  in  these  foot  notes  only  a  page  is  cited 
the  reference  is  to  "  Science  and  Health,  toith  Key  to  the  ScriJ>tures"  the 
text-book  of  the  cult,  edition  of  18S7. 

8  Dent  V.  West  Virginia,  129  U.  S,  114. 


ITS   LEGAL   ASPECTS.  15 

scientific  progress  and  discourage  investigation.  It  is 
not  for  legislatures  to  say  how  either  bodies  or  souls 
shall  be  cured,  to  enact  pharmacopoeias  into  statutes 
or  crystallize  theories,  medical  or  religious,  into  law. 
But  it  is  entirely  right  and  proper  for  them  to  declare 
that  no  man  shall  enter  upon  the  business  of  treating 
the  sick  until  he  is  of  full  age  and  has  shown,  upon 
examination,  that  he  has  studied  for  a  prescribed  time, 
and  acquired  competent  knowledge  of  those  branches 
of  true  science,  familiarity  with  which  is,  by  universal 
consent,  necessary  to  equip  one  into  whose  hands  life 
and  health  are  to  be  committed — physiology,  anatomy, 
surgery,  obstetrics,  hygiene,  chemistry,  pathology,  di- 
agnosis. The  licensed  medical  practitioner  may  act 
in  any  case  upon  any  theory  of  therapeutics  commend- 
ing itself  to  his  judgment ;  allopathy— if  there  be  such 
a  theory — homeopathy,  hydropathy,  electropathy,  vi- 
tapathy,  venopathy,  osteopathy,  Baunscheidtismus, 
magnetic  healing,  the  Christian  Science  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 
the  pagan  science  of  the  Yoodoo  Queen,  or  a  general 
Eclecticism. 

In  short,  the  law  aims,  and  should  aim,  to  require, 
as  the  only  prerequisite  of  a  medical  license,  satisfac- 
tory proof  that  the  candidate  is  of  good  character  and 
average  equipment  through  study  and  training.  In 
New  York,  for  example,  there  are  three  Boards  of 
Medical  Examiners,  representing  the  regular  practi- 
tioners, and  the  Homeopathic  and  Eclectic  Schools. 
Examinations  are  uniform  in  physiology,  anatomy,  and 
all  the  other  branches  of  science  above  enumerated, 
wherein  there  is  no  medical  schism.  In  therapeutics, 
where  opinions  diverge,  candidates  for  license  may  de- 


16  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

mand  examination  according  to  their  schools.  Ehode 
Island's  Supreme  Court  said  lately,  in  Mylod's  case,^ 
by  way  of  reditctio  ad  ahsurdum^  that  Christian  Scien- 
tists, were  they  held  to  be  practitioners  of  medicine, 
w^ould  be  entitled  under  the  constitution  of  that  State 
to  a  separate  Board  of  Examiners — offering  this  as  one 
argument  for  not  holding  them  to  be  such  practition- 
ers. But  why  should  not  Christian  Scientists,  who 
make  a  business  of  attempting  to  cure  the  sick,  be  re- 
quired to  submit  to  examination  in  general  medical 
science,  quite  as  much  as  homeopaths  from  whose  loins 
they  have  sprung ;  going,  as  do  candidates  from  other 
schools,  before  their  own  board  in  therapeutics  ?  It 
is  said  that  they  give  no  drugs,  but  they  must  and  do 
make  diagnosis,^  and  their  "  Mother  "  says  that  they 
often  give  medicine.^  Is  it  unreasonable  to  infer  that 
their  actual  objections  to  being  classed  as  medical 
practitioners  subject  to  license  are:  (1)  that  to  pre- 
pare for  examination  requires  years  of  study  in  real 
science ;  (2)  that  no  one  Avith  a  fair  knowledge  of  the 
human  economy,  and  equipped  to  practice  medicine 

'  State  V.  Mylod,  40  Atl.  753.  See  the  paper  "  Christian  Science  before 
the  Law,"  p.  91. 

2  Although  Christian  Scientists  deny,  in  order  to  escape  prosecution  un- 
der medical  laws,  that  they  make  diagnosis  of  disease,  yet  upon  their  own 
theory  they  must  do  so  ;  for  their  teacher  bids  them  mentally  to  address  by 
name  the  disease  to  be  treated,  and  argue  with  it.  They  sometimes  call 
"diagnosis"  "discernment,"  and  Mrs.  Eddy  says  of  herself,  "I  have  dis- 
cerned disease  in  the  human  mind,  and  recognized  the  patient's  fear  of  it 
many  weeks  before  the  so-called  disease  made  its  appearance  in  the  body. 
.     .     .     I  a77i  never  mistake?!  i7t  Jtiy  scientific  diagnosis  of  diseased     (P. 

194.) 

3  "Departing  from  my  instruction,  many  learners  commend  diet  and 
hygiene,  T/iey  even  administer  medicine  for  certain  diseases,  thinking 
thereby  to  initiate  the  cure  which  they  think  to  complete  with  mind !  " 
(P.  376.) 


ITS    LEGAL   ASPECTS.  17 

intelligently,  would  adopt  the  vagaries  of  their  pseudo 
science  ? 

Such  being  the  purpose  and  proper  scope  of  medical 
laws,  the  second  inquiry  is.  What  is  so-called  Chris- 
tian Science  ? 

The  answer  may,  best  and  most  fairly,  be  given  by 
quoting  the  very  words  of  the  remarkable  lady,  Mrs. 
Eddy,  who,  in  1866,  made  the  somewhat  belated  dis- 
covery of  this  branch  of  healing.  This  is  the  more 
important  because  many  who,  without  having  read 
the  text-book,  fancy  they  know,  in  a  general  way, 
what  it  teaches,  would  be  surprised,  on  looking  into 
the  volume,  at  the  vagueness  of  expression,  hopeless 
confusion  of  thought,  vain  boasting,  complacent  asser- 
tion of  impossible  occurrences,  virulent  denunciation 
of  all  other  systems,  and  systematic,  commonplace  ad- 
vertising that  everywhere  appear.  The  publications 
to  be  quoted  from  are  ''  Science  and  Health,  with  Key 
to  the  Scriptures"  (Edition  of  1887,  published  by  the 
author),  and  "Miscellaneous  Writings,  1883-1896." 
The  former,  being  the  text-book  wherein  the  new  dis- 
covery is  expounded,  is  read  at  the  church  service  of 
the  Scientist  alternately  with  the  Bible,  and,  if  its  au- 
thor is  to  be  credited,  the  mere  reading  of  it,  under- 
standingly,  has  cured  and  will  cure  the  most  malig- 
nant diseases,  even  cancer,  and  indeed  is  the  chief 
factor  in  all  treatment. 

At  the  threshold  of  this  magnum  opus,  we  are  told  : 
"  The  time  for  thinkers  has  come."  ^  Hitherto,  the 
world  has  got  along  in  a  thoughtless  fashion  ;  but 
at  last  the  thinkers  are  upon  us— not  only  those  who 

>P.5. 


18  CHKISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

think  they  think,  but  real  thinkers ;  and  it  behooves 
us  to  heed  their  thought.  Perhaps  it  is  this  state- 
ment, as  much  as  any  other  in  the  book,  that  gives  to 
Christian  Science  what  vogue  it  has.  The  more 
ignorant  the  disciples,  the  more  flattered  he  is  to 
esteem  himself  a  thinker  wiser  than  all  who  have 
gone  before.  A  cubit  is  added  to  his  stature  and  he 
glows  with  self-satisfaction.  When  the  author  wrote 
of  the  Saviour :  "  Though  Jesus  is  the  impetus  and 
pulse  of  Christianity,  yet  Christianity  is  larger  than 
its  human  founder  ;"^  and  again  of  Bishop  Berkeley : 
"  He  was  a  great  natural  Scientist  in  his  day,  and  held 
opinions  concerning  '  absolute  idealism '  which  ad- 
vance his  memory  near  to  the  border-land  of  Christian 
Science,"  ^  she,  too,  doubtless  felt  this  gloAV,  and  failed 
to  apprehend  in  the  words  what  was  blasphemous  to 
the  pious,  humorous  ^  to  the  merely  instructed  and  of- 
fensive to  good  taste. 

Another  reason  why  this  text-book  impresses  the 

J  p.  229.     2  p,  230. 

3  The   poems  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  published  in  Miscellaneous  Writings,  Ch. 
XI.,  afford  evidence  at  once  of  her  literary  craftsmanship  and  of  her  en- 
tire lack  of  humor.     Two  verses  from  one  of  them,  "  Isle  of  Wight,"  (p. 
393),  may  serve  to  illustrate  her  pellucid  thought  and  style: 
"  Soul,  sublime  'mid  human  debris 
Paints  the  limner's  work,  I  ween, 
Art  and  vScience,  all  unweary. 
Lighting  up  the  mortal  dream." 


"  Students  wise,  he  maketh  now  thus 
Those  who  fish  in  waters  deep. 
When  the  buried  Master  hails  us 
From  the  shores  afar,  complete." 
However  trite  or  obscure   her  prose   teachings,  no   one  will  deny  the 
novelty  and  originality  of  rhyming  ^*  debris^''  with  "unweary,"  "ween" 
with   "dream,"  "now  thus"   with  "hails   us"  and  "  deep  "  with  "  com- 
plete," and,  to  quote  Calverley's  saying  of  other  poetry,  "  As  to  its  mean- 
ing, it's  what  you  please." 


ITS   LEGAL   ASPECTS.  19 

superficial  as  containing  oracles  of  wisdom  is,  that  it 
so  often,  like  Dr.  Holmes's  katydid,  says  "  an  undis- 
puted thing  in  such  a  solemn  way  ; "  for  example, 
that  those  who  are  sick,  or  think  themselves  sick, 
should  be  cheered  up ;  that  fear  strongly  affects  the 
system  and  even  predisposes  the  timid  to  the  sickness 
they  stand  in  dread  of  ;  that  children  should  not  be 
coddled  over-much,  and  that  men  ought  to  be  good ; 
trite  sayings  all,  but  to  the  thoughtless  thinker  reve- 
lations. 

Yet  another  reason  that  commends  the  book  and  its 
disciples  to  the  credulous  is  their  boastful  assurance 
of  impossible  results.  Eeputable  practitioners  of 
medicine  or  law  do  not  insure  success.  Undoubtedly, 
however,  such  assurance  inspires  hope,  especially  in 
credulous  minds.  Mrs.  Eddy  does  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  she  cures  the  hundred  cases  where  physicians 
lose  the  ninety -and-nine  ;  ^  and  her  disciples  have  been 
known  to  give  equal  assurances  to  a  patient  already 
in  the  death  agony. 

A  review  of  these  books  might  be  entertaining,  and 
even  profitable,  if  it  served  to  enlighten  any  who  may 
have  accepted  the  "  Science "  without  study  of  its 
genesis,  by  showing  how,  out  of  the  time-worn  specu- 
lation of  idealism  that  matter  does  not  exist  apart 
from  mind,  a  lady  of  Lynn,  Mass.,  has  spun  a  web  of 
incoherent  words  ^  contradicting  themselves  on  every 

'  P-  387. 

2  As  if  realizing  how  incoherent,  vague  and  self-contradictory  is  her 
writing,  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  somewhat  in  the  manner  of  Mr.  Bunsby,  "  In  the 
spiritual  sense  of  my  subject  lies  the  elucidation  of  it,  and  this  sense  you 
must  gain  in  order  to  reach  my  meaning  "  (p.  391).  And  again,  •'  Mortal 
mind  does  not  at  once  catch  my  meaning,  and  can  only  do  so  as  thought 
is  educated  up  to  my  spiritual  apprehension  "  (p.  392).     And  finally  to 


20  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

page,  and  yet  so  attractive  to  the  credulous  as  to  form 
the  nucleus  of  a  cult  and  of  an  excellent  source  of  rev- 
enue for  the  writer,  and  for  those  of  her  disciples 
who,  in  absolute  ignorance  ,of  medical  science,  assume 
to  cure  every  human  malady  ;  not  only  treating  adults, 
but  even  helpless  children,  preventing  the  attendance 
of  qualified  medical  men  in  critical  cases,  and  even 
condemning  observance  of  the  rules  of  cleanliness, 
hygiene,  diet  and  exercise.  But  with  the  metaphysics 
of  the  book  we  have  here  to  do  only  in  so  far  as  it  af- 
fects the  practical  system  of  treating  the  sick. 

Originally,  Mrs.  Eddy  seems  to  have  been  a  home- 
opathist  of  the  "  high  potency  "  faction,  and  to  have 
been  led  by  recognizing  the  medicinal  inertness  of  high 
attenuations  to  her  present  theories.^  She,  herself, 
says  :  "  Homeopathic  remedies,  sometimes  not  contain- 
ing a  particle  of  medicine,  are  known  to  relieve  the 
symptoms  of  diseases.  "What  works  the  cure  ?  It  is 
the  faith  of  mortal  mind  that  changes  its  own  self-in- 
flicted suffering,  and  produces  a  new  effect  upon  the 
body."  ^  This  would  be,  at  least,  intelligible  if  she  did 
not  also  teach  that  "  there  is  really  no  such  thing  as 
mortal  mind ; "  ^  that  "  disease  is  an  impression  orig- 
inating in  the  unconscious  mortal  mind,  and  becoming 
at  length  a  conscious  belief  that  the  body  or  matter 
suffers,  ...  a  growth  of  illusion  springing  from 
a   seed    of    thought,    either    your    own    thought   or 

her  disciples  and  general  readers  she  intimates  that  she  can  "  explicate 
spiritual  meanings  more  fully  "  by  "  practical  teaching,"  i.  e.,  presumably 
by  attendance  on  her  well  paid  lectures  (p.  17). 

1  "  Homeopathy ;  Its  Friends  and  its  Foes."  Annual  address  by  Dr. 
H.  M.  Paine,  President  of  the  Homeopathic  Medical  Society  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  1888,  Trans.  Vol.  XXIII. 

2  P.  312.     3  P.  419- 


ITS   LEGAL  ASPECTS.  21 

another's;"^  that  body  "is  the  seedling  that  starts 
thought,  and  sends  it  to  the  brain  for  consciousness ;  "^ 
that  "the  entire  mortal  body  is  evolved  from  mortal 
mind,"  so  that  a  bunion  would  be  insanity  if  mortal 
mind  would  only  call  the  foot  the  brain ;  ^  that  matter 
"  is  another  name  for  mortal  mind  "  ^  and  "  disappears 
under  the  miscroscope  of  spirit ; "  ^  and  that  pain,  which 
is  presumably  suffering,  is  "  a  belief  without  an  ade- 
quate cause."  ^  We  are  also  taught  that  "  disease  has 
no  intelligence  to  move  itself  about  or  change  itself 
from  one  form  to  another."  ^  Taking  again  the  sen- 
tence just  quoted,  and  substituting  these  definitions 
for  words,  we  have  this  remarkable  result :  "  It  is  the 
faith  of  mortal  mind  (i.  e.,  nothing)  that  changes  its 
own  self-inflicted  sufferings  {i.  e.,  beliefs  without  ade- 
quate cause)  and  produces  a  new  effect  upon  the  body  " 
{i.  e.,  an  evolution  of  mortal  mind,  or  nothing,  which 
therefore  is  itself  nothing). 

Before  this  jargon  one  may  fancy  the  delighted  new 
thinker,  like  dear  Alice  after  reading  the  Jabberwock, 
gloriously  filled  with  ideas,  but  entirely  ignorant  of 
the  meaning.  The  most  that  can  be  made  of  her 
theory  is  that  disease  does  not  exist  save  as  a  false 
belief  to  be  treated  with  argument ;  and  the  positive 
treatment  of  it  is  as  follows :  First  of  all,  buy  Mrs. 
Eddy's  books  and  have  the  patient  do  so.^  This  will 
increase  the  circulation — of  the  book,  if  not  of  the 
patient.  Next,  deny  that  there  is  any  disease,  and 
make  the  patient  agree  with  you.  "  Eemember  that 
all  is  mind  and  there  is  no  matter.     You  are  only 

ip.  182.  2 p.  191.  3p,  300.  "P.  542.  5 P.  15.  ^P.  342.  'P.  301- 
«I^-375- 


22  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

seeing  or  feeling  a  belief,  whether  it  be  cancer,  de- 
formity, consumption,  or  fracture  that  you  deal  with."^ 
Having  thus  established  that  the  disease  does  not  ex- 
ist, you  next  proceed  to  "meet  the  incipient  stage  of 
disease  with  such  powerful  eloquence  as  a  Congress- 
man would  employ  to  defeat  the  passage  of  an  inhu- 
man law."^  No  disease  can  stand  that.  Still  more 
oddly,  you  are  to  call  this  disease,  whose  existence 
you  deny,  by  name,  but  mentally,  lest  if  the  patient 
hear  its  name,  his  mortal  mind  will  hold  on  to  the  dis- 
ease ;  for,  apparently,  the  mortal  mind,  which  itself 
has  no  existence,  although  impressed  by  absent  treat- 
ment and  the  reading  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  cannot  let 
go  any  disease  whose  name  is  spoken  out  loud.  But 
if  you  only  address  the  disease  mentally  and  speak  the 
truth  to  it,  "  tumors,  ulcers,  tubercles,  inflammation, 
pains  and  deformed  backs  ...  all  dream  shad- 
ows, dark  images  of  mortal  thought,  will  flee  before 
the  light."  ^  To  the  practical  mind  it  would  seem  that 
the  "  healer  "  would  need  some  medical  knowledge  to 
make  his  differential  diagnosis  of  "  ulcers  "  and  "  tu- 
mors," and  to  distinguish  between  abscess,  aneurism, 
and  other  abnormal  conditions.  And  if  disease  does 
not  exist,  and  has  no  intelligence  to  move  or  change 
itself,  it  does  seem  a  bad  waste  of  time  to  have  any 
discussion  at  all  with  it. 

If  this  were  all  of  Christian  Science,  it  might  do  lit- 
tle or  no  harm.  No  one  would  object  to  letting  a 
"  Scientist "  hold  mental  conversations  with  the  patient's 
disease,  or  give  "  absent  treatments,"  or  encourage  the 
sick  to  "look  on  the  bri^^ht  side."     And  a  kindly  soul 

if.  297.       2  p.  222.       3  p.   301. 


ITS    LEGAL   ASPECTS.  23 

Avould  no  more  restrain  a  '^  Scientist "  from  playing 
with  bis  metaphysics  than  he  would  interfere  with  a 
hopeful  kitten  that  whirls  in  happy  pursuit  of  its  own 
elusive  tail — always  in  sight,  yet  never  quite  attained. 
But  it  is  the  negative  teachings  of  the  so-called  Science 
that  render  its  disciples  pestilent  and  dangerous  to  the 
public  health.  Declaring  the  incantations  of  the  Es- 
quimaux to  be  "  as  effective  in  cure  of  the  sick  as  the 
modus  operandi  of  civilized  practitioners,"  Mrs.  Eddy 
goes  on  to  teach  that  physiology  is  anti-Christian.  *'  It 
teaches  us  to  have  other  gods  before  Jehovah.  It 
is  neither  moral  nor  spiritual."  ^  In  its  place  she  would 
substitute  harmony ;  for  "  discord  is  the  nothingness 
of  error,  harmony  is  the  soTnethingness  of  truth."  ^ 
"  Sickness  is  inharmony."  ^  This  "  new  thought  "  is 
even  older  than  that  famous  little  dinner  given  by 
Agathon,  where,  notwithstanding  the  presence  of  Plato 
and  Socrates,  Aristophanes  got  tipsy  and  asked  Eryx- 
imachus,  the  physician,  why,  if  the  latter  really  be- 
lieved health  to  be  only  harmony  and  love  among  the 
members,  he  should  prescribe  anything  so  inharmonious 
as  sneezing  to  cure  hiccoughs. 

]^o  physician  is  to  be  called  in  by  the  sick.  "  The 
Scientist  who  understands  and  adheres  strictly  to  the 
rules  of  my  system  ...  is  the  only  one  safe  to 
employ  in  difficult  and  dangerous  cases."  ^ 

Every  form  of  treatment.  Homeopathy,^  Mind  Cure,^ 
Movement  Cure,^  Animal  Magnetism,  Clairvoyance, 
Mediumship  and  Mesmerism,^  is  impartially  con- 
demned.    Against   animal   magnetism   Mrs.  Eddy  is 

IP.    171.         2  p.    22.         3  P.    177.         ■»??.      186,     324.         5  p.     183.         6  p.     376. 

7  p.  364.    8  PP.  212,  213,  219,  302. 


24  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

particularly  bitter,  apparently  because,  having  been 
once  "  personally  manipulated  "  by  the  late  Mr.  P.  P. 
Quimby,  "an  uneducated  man,  but  a  distinguished 
mesmerist,"  it  was  thereafter  stated  that  Mr.  Quimby 
was  the  "  originator  "  of  her  writings.^  "  It  is  morally 
Avrong  to  examine  the  body  in  order  to  ascertain  if 
we  are  in  health,"  and  "  to  employ  drugs  for  the  cure 
of  disease  shows  a  lack  of  faith  in  God.^  *'  A  Chris- 
tian Scientist  never  recommends  hygiene."  ^  Dieting, 
dosing  and  exercise  are  unscientific.^  It  is  foolish  to 
suppose  that  it  is  exercise  that  increases  the  muscles 
of  a  blacksmith's  arm ;  for,  if  that  were  so  the  ham- 
mer, which  takes  just  as  much  exercise,  would  also 
grow.^  This  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  char- 
acteristic arguments  of  the  new  thinker.  Bathing  is 
thus  deprecated.  "  Bathing  and  rubbing,  to  alter  the 
secretions  or  remove  unhealthy  exhalations  from  the 
cuticle,  receive  a  useful  rebuke  from  Christian  Heal- 
ing. We  must  beware  of  making  clean  the  outside  of 
the  platter  only.  A  hint  may  be  taken  from  the  Irish 
emigrant  whose  filth  does  not  affect  his  happiness 
when  mind  and  body  rest  on  the  same  basis."  ^  "  The 
Scientist  takes  the  best  care  of  his  body  when  he 
leaves  it  most  out  of  his  thought,  and  like  the  Apostle 
Paul  is  *  willing  rather  to  be  absent  from  the  body 
and  present  Avith  the  Lord.'  "  ^  ''  The  daily  ablutions 
of  an  infant  are  no  more  natural  and  necessar}^  than 
1  P.  6.    3  p.  38. 

3  p.  374;  Mrs,  E.  D.  O.,  "  at  an  early  age  learned  hygiene  (!)  and 
practiced  it  faithfully  for  over  twenty  years  "  with  such  poor  results  that 
she  ••  had  once  been  laid  out  for  dead  "  and  "  did  not  want  to  come  to." 
A  partial  reading  of  "  Science  and  Health  "  made  her  "  a  well  and  hearty 
woman."     (Misc.  W.,  pp.  401-403.) 

<P.  376.       6  p.  209.       6  p.  334,       7  p.  335. 


ITS    LEGAL   ASPECTS.  25 

it  would  be  to  take  a  fish  out  of  water  once  a  day  and 
cover  it  with  dirt,  in  order  to  make  it  thrive  more 
vigorously  thereafter  in  its  native  element."  ^  Medical 
study  is  harmful.  "Anatomy,  physiology,  treatises 
on  health — sustained  by  what  is  called  material  law — 
are  the  husbandmen  of  sickness  and  disease."^ 
Proper  clothing  is  unnecessary  ;  for  "  you  would  never 
conclude  that  flannel  is  better  than  controlling  Mind 
for  warding  off  pulmonar}^  disease,  if  you  understood 
the  Science  of  being."  ^  If  one  be  only  a  Christian 
Scientist  he  "  may  expose  himself  in  a  state  of  perspi- 
ration to  draughts  of  air  without  experiencing  the  us- 
ual ill  effects;""*  i.  e.,  Christian  Science  is  prophy- 
lactic, and  this  is  expressly  asserted.^ 

The  foregoing  is  all  bad  enough  as  to  adults  ;  but, 
when  it  concerns  them  only,  something  may  be  said 
in  favor  of  the  decision,  cited  by  Puff  end  orf,  in  the 
case  of  a  patient  who  sued  a  horse-doctor  for  blinding 
him  by  applying  to  his  eyes  the  same  ointment  that 
was  used  for  horses.  The  Cadi  decided  against  the 
suitor,  because:  "If  the  Fellow,"  says  he,  "had  not 
been  an  Ass,  he  had  never  applied  himself  to  a  Horse- 
doctor."  ^ 

But  what  is  to  be  said  of  such  advice  as  this  to 
mothers  ?  "  Mind  can  regulate  the  condition  of  the 
stomach,  bowels,  food,  temperature  of  your  child  far 
better  than  matter  can  do  so.  Your  views  and  those 
of  other  people  on  these  subjects  produce  their  good 
or  bad  results  in  the  health  of  your  child."  ^  "  Your 
child   can  have   worms,  if  you  say  so,  or  whatever 

ip.  159.     2 P.  183.     3p.  i6o.     "P.  314.     5P.348.    6  Puff.  Book,  v.,  Ch. 

IV.      Tp.   158. 


26  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

malady  is  timorously  holclen  in  your  mind  relative  to 
the  body.  Thus  you  lay  the  foundation  of  disease  and 
death,  and  educate  your  child  into  discord  ?  ^  Even 
if  a  child  is  attacked  by  contagious  disease,  Mrs.  Eddy 
attributes  the  cause  to  maternal  fear.^  Thus  the 
mother  is  taught  that  her  child's  illness  depends  upon 
her  fancy,  and  that  neither  physicians,  remedies  nor 
decent,  cleanly  care  are  necessary  for  its  aid.  And  in 
the  record  of  deaths  resulting  from  the  treatment  of 
Christian  Scientists,  Faith  Curers,  Peculiar  People,  et 
id  genus  omne,  a  large  proportion  are  those  of 
neglected  children  suffering  from  acute  inflammations 
of  the  lungs,  diphtheria,  pneumonia  and  like  com- 
plaints. One  horrible  and  typical  case  in  Brooklyn 
was  brought  to  public  notice  by  an  undertaker  called 
in  by  a  Faith  Curer  to  bury  the  latter's  child,  six 
years  of  age,  dead  from  diphtheria.  Two  other  chil- 
dren, one  about  eight,  the  other  less  than  two  years 
old,  were  found  suffering  from  the  same  disease.  The 
father  explained  his  failure  to  call  in  medical  aid  by 
saying  he  did  not  believe  in  doctors  since  he  believed 
in  Christ.^  Here  his  delusion  caused  not  only  the 
death  of  his  OAvn  child,  but  put  in  peril  the  public 
health.  The  same  neglect  would  have  occurred  had 
the  case  been  smallpox  or  scarlet  fever. 

A  number  of  even  more  harrowing  cases  might  be 
cited,  did  space  or  inclination  serve  ;  but  their  recital 
is  needless.  * 

Contrary   to    ordinary   belief,    even   prayer   is   es- 

1  P.  159.     2p,  234.     3N.  Y.  papers,  March  i.,  1890, 

<The  New  York  World  of  Aug.  12,  1899,  prints  a  list  of  forty-one  per- 
sons alleged  to  have  suffered  from  this  delusion.  It  omits  many  to  be 
found  in  a  scrap-book  kept  by  the  writer. 


ITS    LEGAL   ASPECTS.  27 

chewed.  "  The  only  beneficial  effect  of  prayer  is  on 
the  human  mind,  making  it  act  more  powerfully  on 
the  body  through  a  stronger  faith  in  God.  This, 
however,  is  one  helief  casting  out  another^  a  belief  in 
the  unknown  casting  out  a  belief  in  sickness."  ^  And 
when  we  remember  that  "  belief  can  only  bring  on 
disease,  it  can  never  relieve  it,"  the  inefficacy  of 
prayer  becomes  manifest;  and  we  are  expressly 
taught  that  "if  we  pray  to  God  as  a  person,  this 
will  prevent  us  letting  go  the  human  doubts  and  fears 
that  attend  all  personalities."^ 

The  most  ignorant  persons  set  themselves  up  to 
cure  the  sick  under  this  system  as  a  business  and  for 
hire.  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  accumulates  and  publishes 
certificates  of  cures  by  herself,  by  her  disciples  and 
by  the  mere  reading  of  her  book,  that  are  contrary  to 
all  possibility  in  human  experience  and  smack  in 
every  line  of  the  charlatan.  Her  volume  of  "Mis- 
cellaneous Writings "  is  in  part  made  up  of  certifi- 
cates differing  from  those  that  usually  accompany 
quack  nostrums,  only  in  that  they  are  more  incredible 
than  those  the  ordinary  charlatan  ventures  to  put 
forth.  She  cures  cancers  in  one  visit.  A  child  of 
eighteen  months,  suffering  for  months  with  ulceration 
of  the  bowels,  and  given  up  by  the  "  M.  D.'s,"  is  lifted 
from  his  cradle  and  kissed,  he  at  once  begins  to  play 
with  his  toys,  and  that  night  before  retiring  eats 
heartily  of  cabbage !  ^     One  Mrs.  Armstrong  writes, 

1  p.  488.     2  p.  492,  cf.  484  and  393. 

3 P.  200.  This  certificate  dated  "Lynn,  June,  1873,"  says  "Mrs. 
Eddy  came  in,"  etc.,  although  Mrs.  Glover-Patterson  did  not  marry  Mr. 
Eddy  until  four  years  later,  in  1877 — (See  note  to  the  case  against  Chris- 
tian Science,  p.    60.) 


28  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

without  date  or  address,  to  enclose  a  check  for  $500, 
in  payment  of  an  absent  treatment  by  which  heart 
disease  and  dropsy,  lasting  from  childhood,  were 
cured  immediately  upon  Mrs.  Eddy's  receipt  of  a 
letter  from  Mr.  Armstrong.  ^  Hood's  case  of  "  Mrs. 
F.,  so  exceedingly  deaf,"  who  purchased  an  ear 
trumpet,  "and  very  next  day  heard  from  her  hus- 
band in  Botany  Bay,"  becomes  modest  in  comparison. 
But,  although  Mrs.  Eddy  personally  cures  fractures — 
did,  in  fact,  by  "  absent  treatment "  cure  the  crushed 
foot  of  Mr.  R.  O.  Badgeley,  of  Cincinnati;^  and  al- 
though she  expressly  teaches  that  her  Science  cures 
"  acute  and  chronic  forms  of  disease,^  and  fractures  "  ^ 
as  well  as  other  deformities — nay  more,  has  "raised 
the  dying  to  life  and  health  "  ^ — she  nevertheless  says : 
"  Until  the  advancing  age  admits  the  efficacy  and 
supremacy  of  Mind,  it  is  hetter  to  leave  the  adjustment 
of  broken  bones  and  dislocations  to  the  fingers  of  sur- 
geons, while  you  confine  yourself  chiefly  to  mental 
reconstruction  and  the  prevention  of  inflammations  or 
protracted  confinement."  ^ 

Here  Mrs.  Eddy  confesses  the  sham  of  her  theory. 
Earth  often  covers  the  physicians'  mistakes,  but  not 
so  frequently  those  of  the  surgeon.  The  vast  major- 
it}^  of  suits  for  malpractice  are  in  surgical  cases.  The 
results  of  operations  often  demonstrate  the  malprac- 
tice. And  is  it  not  fair  thus  to  paraphrase  this  sly 
advice  ;  "  Take  any  risk  with  the  sick.  If  the  patient 
die,  who  can  prove  that  you  caused  the  death  ?  But 
be  wary  in  surgical  cases,  for  there  ignorance  and  lack 
of  skill,  being  demonstrable,  may  cause  you  to  pay 

>P.    199.       2  p.    199.       3  p.    186.       ■•?.    358.       5  p.   317.       6  p.    328. 


ITS   LEGAL   ASPECTS.  29 

heavily  for  your  persumption  ?  "  The  fitting  climax 
to  this  farrago  of  undigested  metaphysics  and  vain 
boasting  ^  is,  that  hunger  and  thirst  are  also  mental 
impressions  to  be  argued  with,^  that  food  is  not  requi- 
site to  support  life,  although  ^'  it  would  he  foolish  to 
stop  eating  until  we  gain  more  goodness  /  "  ^  and,  lastly, 
that,  as  there  is  no  mortal  mind  from  which  to  make 
a  mortal  body,  immortality  is  already  here.^ 

The  methods  of  this  extraordinary  system  of  cure 
for  the  sick  have  been  set  out  thus  fully  and,  it  is  be- 
lieved, fairly,  because  in  no  reported  law  case  have 
they  been  brought  before  the  Court,  and  the  author- 
ity of  any  adjudicated  case  depends  upon  the  facts  in- 
volved. Ohiter  dicta  are  often  as  misleading  as  met- 
aphysical speculation.  Summed  up,  these  methods 
consist  positively  in  reading  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  and 
arguing  with  non-existent  disease ;  and  negatively  in 
abstaining  from  everything  that  experience  shows  to 
be  of  benefit  to  the  sick,  not  only  specific  medication 
and  operative  treatment,  but  diet,  exercise  and  per- 
sonal cleanliness.  The  evidence  of  the  senses  is  not 
to  be  heeded ;  it  is  even  forbidden  to  admit  that  a  lit- 
tle child  needs  medical  care.  Surely  no  well-balanced 
mind  will  deny  that  this  delusion  is  full  of  danger,  no 
matter  how  sincerely  and  honestly  many  believe  in  it. 

Thus  we  are  brought  to  our  third  inquiry  :  Do  ex- 
isting laws  suffice  us  in  dealing  with  this  delusion  and 
its  votaries,  or  is  further  legislation  necessary  in  the 

'  "  There  are  certain  self-evident  facts.  This  is  one  of  them  that  who- 
ever practices  the  Science  I  teach,  through  wliich  the  Divine  mind 
pours  light  and  healing  upon  this  generation  cannot  pursue  mal-practice, 
or  harm  patient"  (p.  219). 

»  PP.  329,  334-     2  P.  332.     "  PP-  316-327. 


30  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCIi. 

premises!  With  tlie  metaphysical  and  religious  as- 
pects of  the  delusion,  the  law  has  no  more  concern 
than  with  those  of  Mormonism,  Yoodooism,  Shaker- 
ism,  Oneidaism  or  any  of  the  myriad  forms  of  God  or 
Devil  worship.  Ephraim  may  join  himself  to  all  the 
idols  he  desires,  the  law  lets  him  alone.  But  neither 
in  this  life  nor  the  life  to  come  is  every  one  wlio  cries, 
*'  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  in  Thy  name  done  many  won- 
derful works  ?  "  to  escape  just  punishment  for  working 
iniquity,  or  to  be  received  among  the  saints  upon  his 
own  uncorroborated  testimony.  By  the  Mormon  cases, 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  made  it 
plaiu,  if  it  were  ever  in  doubt,  that  no  one  under  the 
cloak  of  religion  can  violate  law  to  gratify  lust  or 
greed,  or  for  any  other  motive.  Thugs  may  not  kill 
because  murder  is  their  creed.  And  there  is  no  rea- 
son why  ignorant  persons  ^  should  be  allowed  to  trifle 
with  human  life  to  the  public  peril,  even  though  they 
wish  to  do  well  and  have  no  worse  motive  than  to  re- 
ceive a  fee. 

The  right  of  the  State  to  forbid  the  ignorant  to  en- 
gage in  the  business  of  healing  the  sick  by  any  system 

1  In  order  to  be  satisfied  of  the  ignorance,  recklessness,  credulity,  and 
assurance  of  the  ••  Scientists,"  one  need  only  read  the  "certificates"  pub- 
lished in  "  Miscellaneous  Works  "  along  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  "  Poems."  It 
seems  that  the  new  gospel  has  been  successfully  preached  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts State  Prison.  One  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  correspondents,  "  J  B.  H." 
whether  a  temporary  sojourner  in  the  prison  or  not  is  not  quite  clear, 
writes  that  after  reading  "  Science  and  Health  "  for  some  days  he  was 
"affected  by  drowsiness  followed  by  vomiting.  This  lasted  several 
hours."  He  then  slept  and  "awoke  healed."  Thereafter  in  three  treat- 
ments he  cured  a  r//?7</"that  the  .M.  D.'s  said  was  dying  of  lung  fever." 
In  two  treatments  he  cured  a  r7iptiired  child ;  and  in  one  treatment  he 
healed  an  old  lady  of  heart  disease  and  chills.  To  top  oft"  with  and  keep 
his  hand  in,  he,  in  two  weeks  oi  absent  treatment,  cured  a  lady  of  insanity 
who  never  saw  him,  nor  even  suspected  what  he  was  up  to.  Misc.  W., 
pp.  405,  406. 


ITS   LEGAL   ASPECTS.  31 

whatever,  is  established ;  and  therefore  whether  or 
not  such  persons  may  practice  Christian  Science  de- 
pends entirely  upon  the  phrasing  of  the  statute. 
Where,  as  in  J^ebraska,  the  law  defines  a  medical 
practitioner  as  one  who  "  professes  to  heal "  the  sick, 
the  practice  of  Christian  Science  by  unlicensed  per- 
sons is  a  violation  of  law ;  but  in  jurisdictions  where 
medical  practice  is  forbidden,  yet  the  use  of  drugs  or 
instruments  is  made  the  test  of  such  practice,  the 
"  Scientist "  may  pursue  his  business.  So,  too,  the 
liability  of  these  people  to  penalties  for  their  failure 
to  report  contagious  diseases  or  deaths  of  patients  de- 
pends on  the  phrasing  of  the  law  or  ordinance,  and 
they  certainly  should  be  required,  if  allowed  to  prac- 
tice, to  make  such  reports,  even  though  they  believe 
in  neither  disease  nor  death. 

In  England,  unlicensed  medical  practice  is  not  a 
misdemeanor ;  and,  therefore,  an  illegal  practitioner 
cannot  there,  as  with  us,  be  found  guilty,  construct- 
ively, of  manslaughter,  should  his  patients  die.  But 
it  is  a  general  rule  of  law  that  a  person  undertaking  a 
duty  must  possess  skill  and  knowledge  competent  for 
its  successful  discharge.  If  a  person  engage  in  the 
business  of  curing  the  sick  without  such  competent 
skill  and  knowledge,  he  becomes  civilly  liable  in  dam- 
ages for  injuries  resulting  from  his  incompetence; 
and  if,  by  reason  of  his  gross  negligence,  ignorance  or 
carelessness,  his  patient  die,  then  he  is  guilty  of  man- 
slaughter at  least,  and  may  be  guilty  of  murder. 
Upon  these  principles  the  famous  quack,  St.  John 
Long,  was  convicted  of  manslaughter  at  the  Old 
Bailev  in  1830.     And,  in  1884,  one  Fierce  was  simi- 


32  CHEISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

larly  convicted  in  Massachusetts.  This  gross  and 
wicked  negligence  may  manifest  itself  either  posi- 
tively, as  when  one  administers  recklessly  or  igno- 
rantly  a  powerful  drug,  or  negatively,  as  Avhen  a  Chris- 
tian Scientist  or  other  fanatic,  thrusting  himself  into 
the  place  of  a  competent  person  and  assuming  the 
duty  of  care,  deprives  the  patient  of  proper  attention, 
and  permits  or  advises  unsuitable  diet,  improper  cloth- 
ing or  other  harmful  violation  of  hygienic  laws.  The 
fact  that  Christian  Scientists,  Faith  Curers,  Mind 
Curers,  and  practitioners  of  like  sort,  do  not  custom- 
arily administer  drugs  or  use  instruments,  is  not  suf- 
ficient reason  why  they  should  escape  liability  for  in- 
juries resulting  from  their  treatment.  It  is  said  in  a 
very  recent  case  that  a  shipmaster  may  be  liable  in 
damages  for  negligently  losing  his  brig,  although  his 
negligence  was  due  to  temporary  insanity ;  the  gen- 
eral rule  of  law  being  that,  as  the  results  of  his  mis- 
fortune should  be  borne  by  him,  not  by  the  equally 
innocent,  an  insane  person  is  to  be  held  civilly  re- 
sponsible for  "  what  in  sane  persons  would  be  willful 
and  negligent  conduct."  Thus,  the  best  plea  that 
could  be  made  for  a  Christian  Scientist,  religious  in- 
sanity, would  be  of  no  avail  in  an  action  against  him 
for  damages  proven  to  have  resulted  from  his  negli- 
gence. 

The  sum  of  the  matter,  then,  is  this :  Under  existing 
laws,  wherever  the  statute  forbids  any  one  without 
license  to  undertake  to  ''  heal "  the  sick,  or  uses  equiv- 
alent words,  and  wherever  the  phrase  "practice  of 
medicine  "  is  not  construed  by  the  Courts  as  applying 
exclusively  to  the  administration  of  drugs  and  the  use 


ITS   LEGAL  ASPECTS.  33 

of  instruments,  Christian  Scientists,  undertaking  the 
cure  of  the  sick  without  license  to  practice  medicine, 
become  subject  to  the  penalties  of  the  law.  They  may 
be  also,  according  to  the  phrasing  of  the  statute,  pun- 
ishable for  failure  to  report  contagious  diseases,  and 
for  other  violations  of  health  ordinances.  They  are 
civilly  liable  in  damages  for  their  malfeasances  and 
misfeasance ;  and,  if  death  can  be  shown  to  have  re- 
sulted from  their  gross  ignorance  or  neglect,  they  may 
be  indicted  for  manslaughter.  English  cases  appar- 
ently to  the  contrary  seem  to  proceed  upon  a  theory 
that  the  negligent  persons  owed  no  duty  to  the  de- 
ceased. The  recent  case,  for  example,  of  the  news- 
paper correspondent  who  died  while  in  care  of  Chris- 
tian Scientists  establishes  nothing.  It  was  not  prose- 
cuted— for  what  reason  does  not  satisfactorily  appear, 
but  presumably  because  the  fanatics  in  attendance  on 
decedent  were  only  rendering  friendly  services  and 
did  not  owe  deceased  a  duty.  I  may  laAvfully  believe 
in  suicide  and  discuss  the  examples  of  Socrates  and 
Cato  without  being  liable  for  the  death  of  a  friend 
who  imitates  them,  but  I  may  not  lawfully  partici- 
pate in  the  suicidal  act.  And  Mr.  Justice  Hawkins  is 
said  by  the  Law  Journal  to  have  carefully  guarded 
himself  against  appearing  to  sanction  the  course 
adopted  in  Frederic's  case. 

Kew  legislation  in  the  premises  is  not  called  for, 
except,  perhaps,  to  define  "practice  of  medicine" 
more  broadly  in  some  jurisdictions.  Such  a  definition 
was  stricken  from  the  :N'ew  York  Medical  Act  of  1887 
by  a  Senator  who  feared  it  would  operate  against  a 
friend  of  his  who  kept  a  bathing  house.     Last  year  a 


34  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

bill  of  somewhat  the  same  purport  seems  to  have  been 
abandoned  by  the  Senator  having  it  in  charge,  for  no 
other  reason,  so  far  as  can  be  learned,  than  that  more 
than  the  usual  number  of  ladies  appeared  to  oppose  it. 
Children  are  now  very  generally  protected  by  special 
laws.  No  statute  can  cure  an  adult  of  folly.  Laws 
specifically  forbidding  the  practice  of  Christian  Science 
Avould  only  provide  that  cheap  martyrdom  which 
would  be  Avelcomed  by  an  advertising  business,  and 
would  be  Avrong,  both  in  principle  and  policy.  The 
delusion  itself  is  bound  to  die,  as  did  that  of  John  of 
Leyden  and  many  another  before  and  since  that 
prophet's  time ;  and  it  is  quite  certain  to  be  succeeded 
by  others. 

In  New  York  city  about  1832,  a  period  of  "great 
awakening "  that  begat  Mormonism  and  many  other 
sects — among  them  one  in  Kentucky,  whose  members, 
in  order  to  Avin  Heaven  by  making  themselves  as  little 
children,  used  to  crawl  on  their  hands  and  knees  in 
church,  play  marbles,  trundle  hoops  and  otherwise 
manifest  their  infantile  madness — one  Matthews,^  a 
carpenter,  having  assumed  the  name  Matthias,  pro- 
claimed himself  to  be  God,  the  Father.  He  found  be- 
lievers, most  of  them  ignorant  but  some  intelligent, 
procured  much  money  and  ruined  many  persons.  He 
and  his  disciples  claimed  to  heal  the  sick  quite  as  suc- 
cessfully as  the  Scientists  now  do.  One  of  them,  a 
Mr.  Pierson,  a  victim  of  religious  delusion,  even  before 
the  coming  of  ^Eatthias,  had  endeavored  under  most 
distressing  and  pathetic  circumstances  publicly  to  raise 
his  wife  from  the  dead,  accepting  literally  the  verse 

1  Matthias  and  his  Impostures,    Harpers,  1836. 


ITS   LEGAL   ASPECTS.  35 

of  the  General  Epistle  of  St.  James  directing  the  elders 
to  anoint  and  pray  over  the  sick,  and  promising  that 
"  the  Lord  shall  raise  him  up."  Matthias,  being  even- 
tually indicted  for  procuring  $630  from  a  Mr.  Folger 
under  the  false  pretence  that  he  was  God,  able  to  re- 
mit sins,  and  would  communicate  the  Holy  Ghost  to 
said  Folger,  the  District  Attorney  entered  a  nolle 
jprosequi  for  these  reasons:  To  maintain  the  indict- 
ment, he  said,  I  must  prove  that  defendant's  pretences 
were  false  and  would  deceive  a  man  of  ordinary  intel- 
ligence and  prudence,  but  no  sane  person  would  believe 
that  Matthias  is  God,  nor  can  I  establish  the  falsity  of 
his  statement  by  legal  evidence.  Matthias  was,  how- 
ever, convicted  on  lesser  charges. 

The  memory  of  the  adventuress.  Diss  de  Bar,  is 
fresh.  In  1888  she  was  convicted  by  a  ]^ew  York 
jury  of  fraud  in  obtaining  money  from  a  lawyer  of 
admittedly  large  attainments,  and  a  former  associate 
of  Mr.  Webster.  She,  too,  sought  to  cloud  the  real 
issue  by  claiming  that  the  right  to  believe  in  Spiritual- 
ism was  involved.  During  her  trial,  the  usual  train 
of  "ladies"  and  "intelligent  persons "  attended  her, 
one  of  her  satellites  being  a  former  diplomat  and  an 
ex-Eegent  of  the  University  of  the  State.  Since  her 
imprisonment  her  star  has  waned.  These  cases  illus- 
trate at  once  the  difficulty  and  possibilities  of  dealing 
with  religious  fanatics  through  existing  laws,  when 
wrong  theory  is  reduced  to  harmful  practice. 

That  Christian  Scientists  frequently  oifend  against 
the  criminal  law  seems  to  be  clear,  and  their  prosecu- 
tion in  such  cases  would  be  of  value  if  it  enlightened 
the  public  as  to  their  real  teaching;   for  it  seems 


36  CHKISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

scarcely  possible  that  an  intelligent  person,  becoming 
fully  acquainted  with  "  Science  and  Health  "  and  its 
teachings,  could  fail  to  visit  Mrs.  Eddy's  cult  with 
condemnation  as  strong  as  that  Avhich  she  unsparingly 
lays  upon  the  competing  cults  of  Faith  Curers,  Mind 
Curers,  Animal  Magnetists  and  Clairvoyants ;  or  that 
any  one  of  taste  or  humor,  after  reading  the 
"Poems"  and  quack  advertisements  of  the  "Miscella- 
neous Writings,"  would  not  blush  to  confess  himself  a 
disciple  of  the  new  "  thought."  Publicity  will  destroy 
the  cult  far  more  quickly  than  legislation. 


11. 

THE  CASE  AGAINST   CHRISTIATT   SCIENCE^ 

In  the  March  number  of  the  North  American  Re- 
mew,  it  was  essayed  in  the  article,  "  Christian  Science 
and  its  Legal  Aspects,"  to  state  clearly,  as  far  as  that 
is  possible,  the  teachings  of  Mrs.  Eddy  ;  using,  in  order 
to  be  scrupulously  fair,  her  own  words,  and  referring 
each  citation  to  its  page  in  her  text-book,  "  Science 
and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures." 

It  Avas  there  said :  "  Publicity  will  destroy  the  cult 
far  more  quickly  than  legislation."  In  that  belief  it  is 
proposed  here,  with  equal  fairness,  by  quotations  from 
her  books,  "  Miscellaneous  Writings  "  and  "  Ketrospec- 
tion  and  Introspection,"  the  latter  being  autobiograph- 
ical in  character,  to  show  something  of  the  life,  pre- 
tensions, methods  and  literary  output  of  this  remarkable 
woman,  leaving  the  reader  to  judge  from  her  own 
words  whether  she  is,  as  her  partisans  assert,  learned, 
modest,  truthful  and  generous,  or,  as  her  adversaries 
declare,  ignorant,  irreverent,  boastful,  and  greedy. 
We  assume  that  candid,  intelligent  persons,  interested 
in  her  teachings  and  alleged  marvellous  cures,  are 
willing  to  learn  the  truth  and  try  the  teacher  upon 
her  utterances  in  the  forum  of  common  sense.  If 
Mrs.  Eddy  did  nothing  more  than  teach  a  philosophic 
or  religious  theory  we  should  waste  no  time  in  aca- 
demic discussion  of  it.  But  she  teaches  a  practice 
that  daily  puts  the  lives  of  adults  and,  more  horrible 

1  From  the  Nori/t  American  Review. 

37 


38  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

still,  of  little  children  at  the  mercy  of  persons  ignorant 
both  of  medical  and  mental  science. 

Some  of  her  quondam  friends  and  disciples  have 
published  matter  denouncing  Mrs.  Eddy  and  attribut- 
ing her  theories  and  her  cure  of  a  severe  illness  to  a 
Mr.  P.  P.  Quimby/  deceased,  whom  she  disparages  as 
"an  uneducated  man."  To  our  apprehension,  a  fair 
representation  of  the  woman  and  her  works  will  be 
more  profitable  than  heated  controversy  or  labored 
argument.  We  concede  to  her,  for  what  it  is  worth, 
the  discovery  of  Christian  Science,  and  ask  no  more 
than  that  the  reader,  friendly  or  hostile,  examine 
judicially  these  gleanings  from  her  works  and  form 
his  own  conclusions. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  best  corrective  of  judg- 
ment is  the  sense  of  humor,  the  faculty  of  appreciat- 
ing one's  own  absurdities.  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  disciples 
take  themselves  very  seriously.  But  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
considers  the  rival  system  of  Faith  Cure  ridiculous, 
appears  from  this  merry  jest  of  hers : 

"When  looking  deeply  into  the  effects  of  faith 
based  on  corporeal  personality  instead  of  the  Divine 
Principle,  the  following  colloquy  is  suggested : 

" '  Have  you  ever  tried  the  faith-cure  ? '  asked  a 
solemn  looking  stranger  of  a  gentleman  in  a  street 
car.  '  I  have,"  was  the  answer.  *  Do  you  believe  in 
it  ? '  ^  I  do.'  *  May  I  ask  of  what  you  were  cured  ? ' 
'  Certainly ;  I  was  cured  of  my  faith.'  "  ^ 

Thus,  by  example,  she  invites  a  display  of  her  own 
drolleries. 

1  See  two  articles  in  the  Arena  for  May,  1899,  by  Horatio  W.  Dresser 
and  Josephine  C.  Woodbury. 

?  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  68. 


THE   CASE  AGAINST   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.         39 

Who,  then,  and  what  is  Mrs.  Mary  Moss  Baker 
Glover  Patterson  Eddy,  who  in  1866,  threw  light 
upon  the  Gospels  for  lack  of  which  saints,  sages  and 
poets,  stumbling  in  darkness  through  the  ages,  have 
failed  to  apprehend  the  Saviour's  teaching ;  who  has 
written  a  book  the  mere  reading  of  which  cures 
cancer ;  to  whom  churches  are  built  wherein  is  read 
the  Lord's  Prayer  expanded  and  improved  by  her 
interpolations  ? 

One  of  her  foremost  apostles,  Mr.  Carol  I^orton,  a 
young  gentleman  belonging  to  "  The  International 
Board  of  Lectureship  of  the  Mother  Church  of  Chris- 
tian Science  in  Boston,  Mass.,"  in  a  lecture  copyrighted 
in  1898,^  presumably  with  her  approval,  thus  describes 
her — he  uses  the  past  tense,  but  the  lady  still  lives  as 
mortal  mind  understands  the  term : 

"  A  quiet  dignity  and  a  divine  perseverance  were 
her  conspicuous  characteristics.  Her  life  motives  were 
essentially  unselfish^  philanthropic  and  idealistic.  As 
a  student  she  was  penetrating,  inquiring,  progressive. 
Perhaps  her  strongest  point  was  that  she  always 
worked  in  a  direct  line.  One  of  her  most  marked 
characteristics  was  that,  if  she  had  loorlced  mentally  in 
a  wrong  direction,  she  coiold  turn  about  with  intelli- 
gent ease.  .  .  .  While  from  the  human  standpoint 
she  inherited  the  refinement  that  goes  with  culture  of 
family  and  moral  rectitude,  yet  there  was  a  marked 
degree  of  spiritual  grace,  delicacy  and  elegance  which 
comes  not  from  human  ancestry,  neither  from  commun- 
ion with  nature.  It  was  the  exquisite  coloring  of  the 
touch  of  the  hands  of  divine  Mind  which  opens  the 
petals  of  thought,  as  it  does  of  the  opening  rose,  and 
evolves  a  symmetry  of  disposition,  temperament  and 

»  Printed  in  the  Troy  Record,  February  28,  1899. 


40  CHRISTIAN   SClENCJe. 

poise  ivhich  is  at  once  recognized  as  of  Divine  not 
human  origin.  .  .  .  She  spent  no  time  in  intellec- 
tual drifting.  Intuition  and  logic  she  united  in  her 
mental  processes  of  reasoning.  .  .  .  Adherence 
to  the  imrpersonal  and  scientific  deductions  of  the  phil- 
osophical teachings  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy  represents 
nothing  different  from  the  loycdty  of  a  mathematician 
to  the  unchanging  rule  of  mathematics.'''' 

The  italics  are  ours.  If  the  description  seems  per- 
fervid,  it  should  be  remembered  that  Mrs.  Eddy  calls 
herself  and  is  called  by  her  disciples  "  Mother,"  ^  and 
Mr.  Norton's  words  are  little  stronger  than  those 
addressed  by  pius  ^neas  to  his  dam,  ^'Haud  tihi 
voltus  77107'talis,  nee  vox  hominem  sonat :  0,  dea 
certe  !  " 

Any  reader  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  books  will  admit  the 
ease  with  which  she  turns  about ;  whether  it  be  intel- 
ligent or  consistent  with  logic  and  loyalty  to  unchang- 
ing rules  is  another  matter. 

An  apostle  worthy  of  the  name  should  have  a  some- 
Avhat  extraordinary  childhood,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  writes : 

"  For  some  twelve  months,  when  I  was  about  eight 
years  old,  I  repeatedly  heard  a  voice  calling  me  dis- 
tinctly by  name,  three  times  in  an  ascending  scale." 

Her  mother  persistently  ignored  this  occurrence, 
until  one  day  a  cousin,  Mehitable  Huntoon,  also  heard 
the  voice.     Then  Mrs.  Baker  told  Mary  of  little  Sam- 

'Thus  an  alleged  disciple  writes:  "Dear  Mother:  The  most  blessed 
of  women !  Oh,  how  I  long  to  sit  within  range  of  your  voice  and  hear 
the  Truth  that  comes  to  you  from  on  High  !  for  none  could  speak  such 
wondrous  thoughts  as  have  come  from  your  pen,  except  it  be  <  the  Spirit 
that  speaketh  in  you.'  "     •'  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  415. 

Mrs.  Eddy  constantly  applies  the  title  to  herself,  for  example  :  "  I,  for 
one,  would  be  pleased  to  have  the  Christian  Science  Board  of  Directors 
itemize  a  bill  of  this  church's  gifts  to  Mother."  "  Miscellaneous  Writ- 
ings," p.  131. 


THE   CASE   AGAINST   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.         41 

nel  and  bade  her  answer  when  next  she  heard  the 
voice,  "  Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth."  The 
child  obeyed  ;  but  the  result  was  disappointing : 

"  When  the  call  came  again  I  did  answer,  in  the 
words  of  Samuel,  but  never  again  to  material  senses 
was  that  mysterious  call  audibly  repeated."  ^ 

Apparently  the  voice  had  nothing  particular  to  say. 

At  the  age  of  twelve,  Mary  was  admitted  to  the 
Congregationalist  Church,  after  much  perturbation 
over  the  doctrine  of  unconditional  election  or  predes- 
tination, due  to  very  creditable  unwillingness  to  be 
saved  if  her  brothers  and  sisters  were  to  be  damned. 
Her  mental  distress  brought  on  fever,  so  the  physician 
said;  and  her  mother  bade  her  seek  God  in  prayer. 
Obedience  this  time  brought  an  excellent  result : 

"  A  soft  glow  of  ineffable  joy  came  over  me,  the 
fever  was  gone,  and  I  arose  and  dressed  myself  in  a 
normal  condition  of  health.  Mother  saw  this  and 
was  glad.  The  physician  marvelled  ;  and  the  '  horri- 
ble decree '  of  Predestination — as  John  Calvin  rightly 
called  his  own  tenet — forever  lost  its  power  over 
me."' 

Notwithstanding  her  refusal  to  accept  Calvin's  doc- 
trine, the  good  pastor  insisted  that  she  had  been 
"  truly  regenerated  ; "  and  she  was  received  into  the 
communion,  of  which  she  says  : 

"My  connection  with  this  religious  body  was  re- 
tained till  I  founded  a  chitrch  of  my  own^  hidlt  on 
the  basis  of  Christian  Science,  Jesus  Christ  himself 
heing  the  chief  corner  stoned  ^ 

'  Under  the  caption,  "  Voices  not  our  own  "  ("  Retrospection  and  Intro- 
spection," pp.  1 6-1 8). 

2"  Theological  Reminiscences,"  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  pp. 
20-24. 


42  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

In  telling  of  her  Early  Studies/  Mrs.  Eddy  accounts 
for  her  constant  disregard  of  the  once  respected  shade 
of  Lindley  Murray : 

"  My  father  was  taught  that  my  brain  was  too  large 
for  my  body,  and  so  kept  me  much  out  of  school,  but 
I  gained  book-knowledge  Avith  far  less  labor  than  is 
usually  requisite.  At  ten  years  of  age  I  was  as 
familiar  with  Lindley  Murray's  Grammar  as  I  was 
with  the  Westminster  Catechism  ;  and  the  latter  I  had 
to  repeat  every  Sunday.  My  favorite  studies  were 
Katural  Philosophy,  Logic  and  Moral  Science.  To 
my  brother  Albert  I  was  indebted  for  lessons  in  the 
ancient  tongues,  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin.  3Iy 
brother  studied  Hebrew  during  his  college  vacations. 
After  my  discovery  of  Christian  Science,  most  of  the 
knowledge  I  had  gleaned  from  school  hooks  vanished 
like  a  dream.^'* 

This  unfortunate  effect  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  discovery, 
apparent  on  almost  every  page  of  her  writings,  ac- 
counts for  her  early  defence  of  her  system  against 
the  charge  of  Pantheism  upon  the  assumption  that 
"the  word  Pantheism  was  derived  from  the  sylvan 
God  Pan,"  and  also  for  her  confusion  of  Gnosticism 
with  Agnosticism.^  These  errors  of  mortal  mind  are 
quite  understandable  when  we  consider  that  the 
teacher,  if  she  ever  knew  anything  of  history,  reli- 
gion, or  philosophy,  had  forgotten  all  that  she  had 
learned  from  books. 

Miss  Mary  Moss  Baker  in  1843  married  Col.  George 
"Washington  Glover,  of  South  Carolina,^  of  whom  she 
says : 

1 "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  19. 

'  May  "  Areua,^^  p,  561. 

*  '« Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  24. 


THE   CASE   AGAINST   CHKlSTIAN   SCIENCE.         43 

"  He  was  spared  to  me  for  only  one  brief  year.  He 
was  in  Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  ivhen  the  yellow 
fever  imaged  in  that  city,  and  was  suddenly  attacked  by 
this  hisidious  disease,  which  in  his  case  proved  fatal."  ^ 

This  admission  that  ''  insidious  disease  "  exists  and 
can  rage  must  be  a  slip  of  the  pen.  We  are  all 
aware  now  that  Disease  and  Death  are  only  errors 
of  mortal  mind. 

Upon  Col.  Glover's  death,  his  widow  returned  to 
E"ew  England,  where  a  child  was  born  who,  at  the 
age  of  four  years,  was  sent  away  and  not  seen  by  her 
again  until,  at  the  age  of  thirty-four,  he  visited  her  in 
Boston.  Upon  their  separation  she  wrote  the  poem 
"Mother's  Darling,"  of  which  she  gives  us  only  one 
verse  : 

*'  Thy  smile  through  tears,  as  sunshine  o'er  the  sea, 
Awoke  new  beauty  in  the  surge's  roll ! 
Oh,  life  is  dead,  bereft  of  all,  with  thee, — 
Star  of  my  earthly  hope,  babe  of  my  soul."  ^ 

Mrs.  Mary  Moss  Baker  Glover  contracted  second 
nuptials  with  a  gentleman  whose  name  does  not  ap- 
pear in  "  Ketrospection  and  Introspection,"  although 
the  event  is  thus  referred  to : 

"My  second  marriage  was  very  unfortunate,  and 
from  it  I  was  compelled  to  ask  for  a  bill  of  divorce, 
which  was  granted  me  in  the  city  of  Salem,  Massachu- 
setts. My  dominant  thought  in  marrying  again  was 
to  get  back  my  child.  The  disappointment  which  fol- 
lowed was  terrible.  His  stepfather  was  envious  ;  and 
although  George  was  a  tender-hearted  and  manly  boy, 
he  hated  him  as  much  as  I  loved  him."  ^ 

Adherence  to  Mr.  Murray's  forgotten  rules  might 

1 "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p,  24. 
2 "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  26. 
3  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  27. 


44  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

have  made  clearer  who  hated  whom ;  and  it  is  cer- 
tainly unfortunate  that  anybody  hated  any  one;  for 
hate,  we  are  taught,  is,  like  fear,  a  cause  or  form  of 
disease.  It  appears,  however,  from  a  letter  of  the 
lady  who  is  now  Mrs.  Eddy,  written  on  March  Y, 
1883,  to  the  Boston  Post  and  quoted  by  Mr.  Dresser^ 
that  this  second  consort  was  Dr.  Patterson,  "  a  distin- 
guished dentist "  who,  while  his  wife  Avas  away  from 
home,  undergoing  Mr.  Quimby's  treatment,  eloped 
"  with  a  married  woman  from  one  of  the  wealthiest 
families."  The  distinction  of  the  doctor  and  the 
wealth  of  the  erring  lady  might  seem  to  have  been 
mentioned  as  softening  the  blow,  were  it  not  that,  in 
reality,  there  was  no  blow  to  soften,  as  transpires 
from  these  words  of  the  apparently  deserted  wife : 

"  It  is  well  to  know,  dear  reader,  that  this  bit  of 
material  history  is  but  the  record  of  dreams,  7iot  of 
real  existence,  and  the  dream  has  no  place  in  Chris- 
tian Science.  It  is  as  '  a  tale  that  is  told,'  and  as  '  the 
shadow  when  it  declineth.'  "^ 

IS'otwithstanding — perhaps,  indeed  on  account  of — 
this  unreality  of  marriage,  Mrs.  Mary  Moss  Baker 
Glover-Patterson,  thirty-four  years  after  her  first  al- 
liance, and  when  somewhere  about  sixty  years  of  age, 
as  nearly  as  we  can  compute,  entered  upon  a  third,  of 
which  she  says  under  the  caption,  "  A  True  Man  :  "  ^ 

*'  My  last  marriage  was  with  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy,  and 
was  a  blessed  and  spiritual  union,  solemnized  at  Lynn, 
Massachusetts,  by  the  Kev.  Samuel  Barrett  Stewart,  in 
the  year  1877.     Dr.  Eddy  was  the  first  student  to 

1  May  "  Arena,''  p.  545. 

2"  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  27. 

3  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  54. 


THE   CASE   AGAINST   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.        45 

publicly  announce  himself  a  Christian  Scientist,  and 
place  these  symbolic  words  on  his  office  sign.  He 
forsook  all  to  follow  in  this  line  of  light.  He  was  the 
first  organizer  of  a  Christian  Science  Sunday-school, 
which  he  superintended.  He  also  taught  a  special 
Bible-class;  and  he  lectured  so  ably  on  Scriptural 
topics  that  even  ministers  listened  to  him  with  mingled 
surprise  and  approbation.  He  was  remarkably  suc- 
cessful in  Mind-healing,  and  untiring  in  his  chosen 
work.  In  1882  he  passed  away,  with  a  smile  of  peace 
and  love  resting  on  his  serene  countenance."  ^ 

To  our  natural  instinct,  this  dealing  with  a  lady's  re- 
peated dreams  is  distasteful.  We  lack  sympathy  with 
the  common  desire  to  pry  into  love  affairs  of  the  great. 
But  when  philosophers  like  Jean  Jacques  and  Mrs. 
Eddy  insist  on  taking  us  behind  the  veil,  there  is  nothing 
for  it  but  to  drop  our  sandals  and  trot  along.  Indeed, 
unless  we  yielded  our  scruples  in  the  present  case,  we 
should  by  excess  of  delicacy  lose  the  "  nexus  "  and  be 
plunged  into  obscurity.  This  is  Mrs.  Eddy's  avowed 
reason  for  relating  these  three  "  dreams  "  and  shadows 
that  declined : 

lit  is  said  in  the  May  ^r<?;/a  (p.  563):  '<Tlie  physician  who  con- 
ducted the  autopsy  says  that  the  death  was  the  result  of  distinctly  de- 
veloped heart  disease ;  but  Mrs.  Eddy  declared  that  it  was  the  result  of 
arsenical  poisoning-  mentally  administered''/  However  that  may  be,  it  is 
true  that  Christian  Science  did  not  save  Mr.  Eddy,  although,  if  we  may 
believe  these  words  of  his  wife,  it  would  have  saved  her.  "  When  the 
mental  malpractice  of  poisoning  people  was  first  undertaken  by  a  mesmer- 
ist, to  test  that  malpractice,  I  experimented  by  taking  some  large  doses  of 
morphine,  to  see  if  Christian  Science  could  not  obviate  its  effect;  and  I 
say  with  tearful  thanks,  <The  drug  has  no  effect  upon  me  whatever.'  The 
hour  has  struck,  «  If  they  drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt  them.'  " 
"  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  topic  "  Falsehood,"  p.  249.  This  surpasses 
Cagliostro's  challenge  to  the  Empress  Catherine's  physician,  who  de- 
nounced him  as  a  quack  and  his  elixir  as  a  humbug.  Prepare,  said 
Cagliostro,  the  most  deadly  poisons  of  which  you  know  and  I  will  do  the 
same.  I  will  take  your  poison  and  then  swallow  a  dose  of  my  antidote. 
You  shall  take  mine  and  save  yourself  as  best  you  can. 


46  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

"Mere  historic  incidents  and  personal  events  are 
frivolons  and  of  no  moment,  unless  they  illustrate  the 
ethics  of  Truth.  To  this  end,  but  only  to  this  end, 
such  narrations  may  be  admissible  and  advisable ;  but 
if  spiritual  conclusions  are  separated  from  their  prem- 
ises, the  nexus  is  lost,  and  the  argument,  with  its 
rightful  conclusions,  becomes  correspondingly  ob- 
scure."^ 

In  view  of  her  concrete  experiences,  Mrs.  Eddy's 
opinions  upon  marriage  in  the  abstract  become  inter- 
esting. In  reply  to  the  question,  "  What  do  you  think 
of  marriage  ?  "  she  answers  : 

"That  it  is  often  convenient,  sometimes  pleasant, 
and  occasionally  a  love  affair.  Marriage  is  susceptible 
of  many  definitions.  It  sometimes  presents  the  most 
wretched  condition  of  human  existence.  To  be  nor- 
mal it  must  be  a  union  of  the  affections  that  tends  to 
lift  mortals  higher."  ^ 

That  her  so-called  "  science  "  does  not  fully  accord 
with  the  prevalent  views  of  decent  men  she  admits  by 
replying  in  this  manner  to  the  question :  "  Is  marriage 
nearer  right  than  celibacy  ?  " 

''Hitman  knowledge  inculcates  that  it  is,  while  Sci- 
ence indicates  that  it  is  not.  But  to  force  the  con- 
sciousness of  scientific  being  before  it  is  understood  is 
impossible,  and  believing  otherwise  would  prevent 
scientific  demonstration.     .     .     . 

"Eights  that  are  bargained  away  must  not  be  re- 
taken by  the  contractors,  except  by  mutual  consent. 
Human  nature  has  lestowed  on  a  wife  the  right  to  he- 
come  a  mother  ;  hict  if  the  wife  esteem.s  not  this  jpriv- 
ilege,  hy  mutual  consent,  exalted  and  increased  affec- 
tions, she  may  win  a  higher.      Science  touches'  the 

'  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  28. 
'"Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  52. 


THE    CASE   AGAINST   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.         47 

conjugal  question  on  the  basis  of  a  bill  of  rights.  Can 
the  bill  of  Conjugal  Eights  be  fairly  stated  by  a  magis- 
trate or  by  a  minister  ?  "  ^ 

The  abolition  of  marriage  she  seems  to  consider  pos- 
sible, if  not  desirable,  although  not  now  practicable. 

"  To  abolish  marriage  at  this  period,  and  maintain 
morality  and  generation,  would  put  ingenuity  to 
ludicrous  ^  shifts^  yet  this  is  jpossille  in  Science^  al- 
though it  is  to-day  prohlematic.'^^^ 

Quitting  gladly  these  recitals  of  ''  personal  events," 
that  have  given  us  ''  the  nexus,''''  we  may  turn  to  Mrs. 
Eddy's  account  of  her  priceless  discovery  that  the 
study  of  Anatomy,  Physiology  and  every  branch  of 
Medical  Science,  the  practice  of  Medicine,  according  to 
any  School,  or  of  Animal  Magnetism,  Movement  Cure, 
Clairvoyance,  Mind  Cure  and  Faith  Cure,  even  the 
taking  of  exercise  and  observance  of  hygienic  rules, 
are  all  wrong  and  harmful,  Christian  Science  being  the 
sole  curative.^     She  says : 

"This  discovery  was  so  new, — the  basis  it  laid 
down  for  physical  and  moral  health  was  so  hopelessly 
original,  and  men  were  so  unfamiliar  with  the  sub- 
ject, that  I  did  not  venture  upon  its  publication  until 
later." 

But  eventually  she  published  her  first  book,  "  The 
Science  of  Man,'"  and  she  tells  us  that  when  "  people 
were  healed  by  simply  reading  it,  the  copyright  was 
infringed.  I  entered  a  suit  at  law  and  my  copyright 
was  protected."  ^ 

Here  we  see  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  "  Key  to  the  Scrip- 

'  "  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  pp.  288,  289. 

2 "  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  286. 

3  See  p.  23  for  citations  upon  this  point. 

<•«  First  Publications,"  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  47. 


48  CHEISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

tures "  does  not  interpret  literally  the  command, 
"  Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee,  and  from  him  that 
would  borrow  of  thee  turn  not  thou  away ; "  or  the 
other,  "And  if  any  man  will  sue  thee  at  the  law  and 
take  away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloak  also." 
She  vociferously  cries  "copyright,  copyright,"  lest 
her  students  or  the  Quimbyites  nest,  Bathylluslike, 
where  she  has  builded.  Fear  is  disease ;  yet  in  terror 
lest  her  own  disciples  filch  her  discovery,  she  sets  up 
this  scarecroAV  on  her  literary  domain. 

"  If  you  should  jprint  and  publish  your  copy  of  my 
worlxs  you  woidd  he  liahle  to  arrest  for  infringement  of 
copyrigld^  ichich  the  law  defines^  and  punishes  as  theft ! 
.  .  .  Your  manuscript  copy  is  liable,  in  some  way, 
to  be  printed  as  your  original  writings,  thus  incurring 
the  penalty  of  the  law,  and  increasing  the  record  of 
theft  in  the  United  States  Circuit  Court."  ^ 

Thus,  while  claiming  supernatural  knowledge  of 
God's  laws,  Mrs.  Eddy,  to  protect  her  pocketboj)k, 
grossly  misstates  the  laAv  of  the  land,  under  which  in- 
fringement of  copyright  is  not  theft  or  punishable  as 
crime. 

It  was  high  time  for  some  one  to  discover  Mrs. 
Eddy's  discovery ;  for  she  says  with  that  modesty  of 
Avhich  we  are  in  quest  : 

"  Even  the  Scripture  gave  no  direct  interpretation 
of  the  Scientific  basis  for  demonstrating  the  spiritual 
Principle  of  healing,  until  our  Heavenly  Father  saw 
fit,  through  the  '  Key  to  the  Scriptures,'  in  *  Science 
and  Health,'  to  unlock  this  'mystery  of  godliness.'"^ 

1  •'  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p,  300.  See  also  "  Retrospection  and  In- 
trospection," under  the  titles  "The  Precious  Volume,"  pp.  49-51,  and 
''Plagiarism,"  p.  93. 

2  •' Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  51. 


THE   CASE  AGAINST   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.         49 

This  fear  lest  her  copyright  be  infringed  constantly 
haunts  Mrs.  Eddy.  As  late  as  June  4,  1899,  in  her 
address  to  the  First  Church  at  its  annual  communion, 
she  says :  "  All  published  quotations  from  my  works 
must  have  the  author's  name  added  to  them  ;  quota- 
tion marks  are  not  sufficient.  Borrowing  from  my 
copyrighted  works  without  credit  is  inadmissible."  ^ 

Unless  she  had  found  the  key  to  this  mystery  no  one 
else  could  have  done  so  : 

"  It  is  often  asked  why  Christian  Science  was  re- 
vealed to  me  as  one  Intelligence  analyzing^  tmcover- 
ing^  and  annihilating  the  false  testimoiiy  of  the  phys- 
ical senses.  .  .  .  Wo  one  else  can  drain  the  cup 
which  I  have  drunh  to  the  dregs,  as  the  discoverer  and 
teacher  of  Christian  Science  /  neither  can  its  inspira- 
tion be  gained  without  tasting  the  ciipy^ 

P.  P.  Quimby  in  particular,  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  could 
not  have  originated  her  system  because  : 

"  1^0  mortal  could  first  have  informed  the  human 
mind  of  what  the  mortal  and  carnal  cannot  discern."^ 

That  is  to  say,  Mr.  Quimby  being  mortal  and  carnal 
never  could  have  discovered  what  Mrs.  Eddy  found 
out  because  of  her  immortality  and  uncarnality.  But 
from  this  position,  when  it  suits  her  purpose,  she  turns 
with  "  intelligent  ease,"  and  claims  for  herself  health 
and  other  carnal  attributes.  Thus  answering  allega- 
tions that  she  was  "  sick,  and  unable  to  speak  a  loud 
word,"  Mrs.  Eddy  says : 

"Lecturing,  writing,  preaching,  teaching,  etc.,  give 

J  <'New  York  Times,  June  5,  1899,  and  other  journals  of  the  time. 
2  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  pp.  38,  39. 
3"  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  44. 


50  CHEISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

fair  pi'oof  that  my  shadow  is  not  growing  less  and  siib- 
stance  is  taking  larger  lyro^ortions.''''  ^ 

This  boast  puts  her  in  a  "  parlous  state  "  under  her 
own  definitions : 

"  The  physical  senses  or  sensuous  nature  I  called 
error  and  shadow.  Soul  I  denominated  substance  be- 
cause soul  alone  is  truly  substantial."  ^ 

Having  discovered  Christian  Science,  it  next  became 
necessary  to  exploit  the  discovery  and  Mrs.  Eddy  went 
about  the  task  systematically. 

"  In  1867  I  introduced  the  first  purely  metaphysical 
system  of  healing  since  the  Apostolic  days.  I  begun 
by  teaching  one  student  Christian  Science  Mind-heal- 
ing. From  this  seed  grew  the  Massachusetts  Meta- 
physical College  in  Boston,  chartered  in  1881.  No 
charter  was  granted  for  similar purj^oses  after  1^^^. 
It  is  the  only  College  hitherto  for  teaching  the  pa- 
thology of  spiritual  power,  alias  the  Science  of  Mind- 
healing."^ 

She  does  not  recite  her  charter  or  its  purpose ;  and 
what  she  omits  to  say  is  often  more  significant  than 
what  she  says.  But  the  records  of  the  Commonwealth 
contain  the  instrument,  which  does  not  mention  either 
Christian  Science  or  any  new  discovery,  but  simply 
incorporates  a  College  for  the  purpose  of  "  teaching 
pathology,  ontology,  therapeutics,  moral  science,  meta- 
physics and  their  adaptation  to  the  treatment  of  dis- 
ease." This  charter  Mvas  granted  under  an  Act  con- 
cerning Associations  for  Keligious,  Charitable,  Educa- 

1  "  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  238. 

2  «*  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p,  90. 
8  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p,  55. 
*  See  frontispiece. 


THE   CASE   AGAINST    ClIKISTIAN   SCIENCE.         51 

tional  and  other  purposes/  under  which  were  organ- 
ized four  other  colleges  mentioned  in  the  Fifth  Annual 
Eeport  of  the  Illinois  Board  of  Health  ^  as  fraudulent. 
This  Act  was  subsequently  merged  into  Chapter  115 
of  the  Public  Statutes.  Owing  to  the  shameless 
manufacture  and  sale  of  diplomas,  the  so-called  "  anti- 
diploma  law"  was  enacted  in  1883,^  prohibiting  so- 
cieties organized  for  medical  purposes  under  that  stat- 
ute from  conferring  degrees  or  issuing  diplomas,  unless 
specially  authorized  by  the  Legislature  so  to  do.  Con- 
ferment of  degrees  in  violation  of  this  law  was  made 
punishable  by  a  fine  of  not  less  than  $500  nor  more 
than  $1,000 ;  and  here  would  seem  to  be  sufficient  ex- 
planation of  the  facts  that  "  no  charter  was  granted 
for  similar  purposes  after  1883,"  and  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
came  in  the  end,  as  we  shall  see  presently,  to  enter- 
tain "conscientious  scruples  about  diplomas." 

Mrs.  Eddy's  institution,  if  we  may  believe  her, 
prospered  marvellously.  Its  course  was  short,  its 
faculty  small,  its  tuition  fees  greater  than  those  of 
Harvard,  Yale  or  Columbia.  Its  instruction  was  con- 
tained in  one  text-book.  Its  classes  were  only  three 
in  number,  the  primary,  the  normal  and  the  obstetric. 
Mrs.  Eddy  seems  to  have  taught  them  all ;  and  why 
not,  since  one  principle  applies  to  all  cases,  whether 
of  fevers,  wounds,  difficult  labors  or  any  other  forms 
of  error  in  mortal  mind?  So  far  as  appears  from 
"  Ketrospection  and  Introspection,"   the   only  other 

1  Ch.  375,  Acts  1874;  embodied  later  in  Ch.  115,  Public  Statutes. 

2  Excelsior,  Bellevue,  Medical  Department  of  American  University  of 
Boston,  First  Medical  College  of  American  Health  Society. 

3  Act  June  30,  1883.— Dr.  Booth  in  1893  was  sent  to  prison  for  selling 
in  New  York  the  Excelsior's  diplomas. 


52  CHKISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

teachers  were  her  last  husband,  Asa  G.  Eddy,  who 
taught  two  terms,  her  adopted  son,  Ebenezer  J.  Foster 
Eddy,^  who  taught  one  term,  and  a  military  gentle- 
man, of  whom  she  says : 

''  General  Erastus  N.  Bates  taught  one  primary 
class  in  1889,  after  which  I  judged  it  best  to  close  the 
institution."  ^ 

It  made  no  particular  difference  in  what  class  stu- 
dents studied.  The  primary  instruction  Avas  all  saffi- 
cient,  and  even  that  was  unnecessary  ;  for  Mrs.  Eddy 
expressly  says : 

"  A  Primary  class  student  richly  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  is  a  better  healer  and  teacher  than  a 
JN^ormal  class  student  who  partakes  less  of  his  love. 
Having  received  my  instructions  in  the  Primary  class 
and  afterward  studied  thoroughly  '  Science  and  Health,^ 
the  student  should  not  hesitate  to  enter  upon  this  priv- 
ileged Gospel  work,  and  so  fulfil  the  command  of 
Christ.  Yea,  an  apt  Bible  scholar  and  a  consecrated 
Christian  by  deeply  diioping  into  my  last  revised 
^Science  and  Health^''  may  even  enter  this  field  of 
labor  without  any  personal  instruction, — heneficially 
to  himself  sj\&  the  race."^ 

The  curriculum  consisted  of  only  twelve  lessons, 
lasting  half  a  day  each  and  extending  over  three 
weeks.  The  tuition  fee  was  three  hundred  dollars. 
Mrs.  Eddy  admits  that  she  was  staggered  when  this 
sum  suggested  itself  to  her.  But  God,  notwithstand- 
ing her  unselfishness,  led  her  to  try  the  experiment 
and  it  succeeded.     We  are  not  burlesquing;  that  is 

*  This  gentleman,  according  to  the  Areua,  has  renounced  both  Mrs. 
Eddy's  name  and  lier  nonsense. 

2"  College  and  Church,"  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  55. 
3"  College  Closed,"  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  60,  61, 


THE   CASE   AGAINST   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.         53 

impossible;     her    own    Avords    fairly    travesty    bur- 
lesque. 

"  Whe7i  God  impelled  me  to  set  a  price  on  my  in- 
struction  in  Christian  Science  Mind-healing,  I  coiold 
think  of  no  financial  eqidvalent  for  an  impartation  of 
a  knowledge  of  that  divine  power  which  heals  ;  hut  I 
toas  led  to  name  three  hundred  dollars  as  the  price  for 
each  pupil  in  one  course  of  lessons  at  my  college, — a 
startli7ig  stem  for  tuition  lasting  harely  three  weeks. 
This  amount  greatly  troubled  me.  I  shrank  from 
asking  it,  hut  was  finally  led,  hy  a  strange  Providence^ 
to  accept  this  fee. 

"  God  has  since  shown  me,  in  multitudinous  ways, 
the  wisdom  of  this  decision ;  and  I  beg  disinterested 
people  to  ask  my  loyal  students  if  they  consider  three 
hundred  dollars  any  real  equivalent  for  my  instruc- 
tion during  twelve  half  days  or  even  in  half  as  many 
lessons.  Nevertheless,  my  list  of  indigent  charity 
scholars  is  very  large,  and  I  have  had  as  many  as 
seventeen  in  one  class."  ^ 

Why  should  her  "  students  "  have  grumbled  at  the 
price  ?  Eeputable  medical  colleges  require  their  stu- 
dents to  study  for  years  before  conferring  degrees 
upon  them.  They  also  require  of  them,  before  ad- 
mission, preliminary  education.  Most  of  the  States 
forbid  unlicensed  persons  to  practice  medicine,  and 
some  exact  a  State  examination  of  medical  graduates 
as  prerequisite  to  license.  But  here  was  a  school  pre- 
tending to  teach,  under  the  guise  of  religion,  an  in- 
fallible method  of  cure  to  any  one  able  to  read  a 
single  book  of  nonsense.  The  head  of  the  college, 
having  avowed  that,  by  the  very  operation  of  her  new 
discovery,    she   had   forgotten   what   little    she    had 

1"  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  64. 


54  CHKISTIAT^   SCIENCE. 

learned  from  books,  naturally  required  no  preliminary 
education  of  her  disciples.  On  the  contrary,  she  ex- 
pressly discouraged  it,  as  appears  from  this  question 
and  answer : 

"  What  can  prospective  students  of  the  College  take 
for  preliminary  studies  ?  Do  you  regard  the  study  of 
literature  and  languages  as  objectionable  ? 

^'  Persons  contemplating  a  course  at  the  Massachu- 
setts Metaphysical  College,  can  prepare  for  it  through 
no  books  except  the  Bible  and  '  Science  and  Health 
with  Key  to  the  Scriptures.'  Man-made  theories  are 
narrow,  else  extravagant,  and  always  materialistic."  ^ 

Again  she  says : 

"  I  recommend  students  not  to  read  so-called  scien- 
tific works,  antagonistic  to  Christian  Science,  which 
advocate  materialistic  systems ;  because  such  works 
and  words  becloud  the  right  sense  of  Metaphj^sical 
Science."  ^ 

Having  thus  impressed  the  duty  of  ignorance  upon 
her  disciples,  she  dubbed  them,  within  three  Aveeks  or 
less,  in  consideration  of  the  fee  of  $300,  doctors  of 
Christian  Science,  and  bade  them  treat  all  diseases. 
The  price  was  cheap  enough.  Buchanan's  notorious 
college  offered  no  easier  terms  ;  and  it  was  not  strange  if 
her  institution  prospered ;  but  Mrs.  Eddy  probabl}^  does 
not  underestimate  its  prosperity  when  she  says  that 
just  before  its  dissolution,  300  students  were  clamor- 
ing for  admission.  Assume  this  to  be  true,  then,  at 
S300  each,  these  "students  "  would  have  paid  $90,000 
for  twelve  half-days'  instruction,  or  $7,500  a  half-day ! 
Why  Avas  this  Golconda  closed  ?  From  unselfishness 
and  conscientious  scruples  about  diplomas! 

1  "  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p,  64. 

8"  Admonition,"  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p,  96, 


THE   CASE  AGAINST   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.         55 

"  The  apprehension  of  what  has  been,  and  must  be, 
the  final  outcome  of  material  organization,  which 
Avars  with  Love's  spiritual  compact,  caused  me  to 
dread  the  unprecedented  jpopularity  of  my  College. 
Students  from  all  over  our  Continent  and  from  Eu- 
rope were  flooding  the  school.  At  this  thne  there 
were  over  three  hundred  applications  from  students 
desiring  to  enter  the  college,  and  applicants  were  rap- 
idly increasing.  Example  had  shown  the  dangers 
arising  from  being  placed  on  earthly  pinnacles.  Even 
goodness  shuns  whatever  involves  material  means  for 
the  promotion  of  spiritual  ends. 

"In  view  of  all  this,  a  meeting  was  called  of  the 
Board  of  Directors  of  my  college,  who,  being  informed 
of  my  intention,  unanimously  voted  that  the  school  be 
discontinued.     .     .     . 

"  The  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College  drew  its 
breath  from  me,  but  I  was  yearning  for  retirement. 
The  question  was.  Who  else  could  sustain  this  institute, 
under  all  that  was  aimed  at  its  mtcd  purpose^  the 
establishment  of  genuine  Christian  Science  Healing. 
My  conscientious  scruples  about  diplomas^  the  recent 
experience  of  the  church  fresh  in  m.y  thoughts;  and 
the  growing  conviction  that  every  one  should  build 
on  his  own  foundation,  subject  to  Ihe  one  builder  and 
maker,  God, — all  these  considerations  moved  me  to 
close  my  flourishing  school."^ 

Does  not  this  explanation  over-tax  credulity  ?  Was 
any  other  college  ever  closed  because  of  its  "  unprec- 
edented popularity  "  ?  Was  it  the  anti-diploma  law 
that  was  '^  aimed  at  its  vital  purpose  "  ?  Why  is  it, 
too,  that  notwithstanding  these  "  conscientious  scruples 
about  diplomas  "  a  great  number  of  persons,  male  and 
female,  still  tack  to  their  names  the  s^nnbolic  letters 
"  C.  S."  and  "  C.  S.  D."  recently  acquired   upon  what 

»  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  pp.  60,  6i, 


56  CHRiSTlAT^   SCIENCE. 

authority  it  is  hard  to  say,  unless  it  be  the  right  of  any 
free-born  citizen,  in  the  absence  of  prohibitory  legisla- 
tion, to  assume  any  title  that  strikes  the  fancy  and 
appropriate  all  the  "  symbolic  letters  "  of  the  alpha- 
bet ?  Having  thus  fully  equipped  her  pupils,  Mrs. 
Eddy  encouraged  them  to  settle  down  in  great  cities, 
not  alone  for  the  glory  of  God,  but  for  this  practical 
reason : 

"  The  population  of  our  principal  cities  is  ample  to 
supply  many  practitioners,  teachers  and  preachers 
with  work."  ^ 

And  in  order  that  they  might  "  enter  this  field  of 
labor  beneficially  to  themselves,"  the  shrewd  Mother 
thus  taught : 

"  Christian  Science  demonstrates  that  ^  the  patient 
who  pays  ivhatever  he  is  aUe  to  pay  for  heing^  healed  is 
more  apt  to  recover  than  he  who  withholds  a  slight  equiv- 
alent for  healthy'^ 

And  yet  these  people  deny  in  Court,  when  arraigned 
for  unlawful  practice  of  medicine  and  manslaughter, 
that  they  demand  fees  for  their  services  ! 

When  was  so  sordid  a  doctrine  ever  preached  by 
medical  men?  AVhat  standing  would  a  physician 
have  who  should  teach  that  the  cure  depends  upon 
the  fee?  Is  this  preachment  inspired  by  God  or 
Mammon,  by  Unselfishness  or  Greed  ?  Whatever  its 
inspiration,  it  has  been  so  well  lived  up  to  that  its 
"  discoverer  "  proudly  exclaims  : 

"  In  the  early  history  of  Christian  Science,  among 
my  thousands  of  students  few  were  wealthy.     Now 

1 "  Admonition,"  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p,  102. 
8 ««  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  pp.  300,  301. 


THE   CASE   AGAiXSt   CHUtSTIAlS^   SCIENCE.         57 

Christian  Scientists  are  not  indigent ;  and  their  com- 
fortaUe  fortunes  are  acquired  hy  healing  mankind, 
morally ,  2)hysically ,  sjnritually !'''  ^ 

With  one  or  two  more  quotations  to  illustrate  the 
divine  elegance  and  grace,  of  ^Yhich  Mr.  Norton 
speaks,  and  the  method  by  which  the  new  system  of 
healing  is  advertised,  we  may  leave  behind  us  very 
cheerfully  Mrs.  Eddy  and  all  her  works.  The  "  Mis- 
cellaneous Writings  "  are  made  up  in  about  equal  pro- 
portions of  answers  to  questions,  letters  and  essays, 
doggerel  rhymes  and  advertising  certificates  ;  one  or 
two  excerpts  will  illustrate  the  author's  facility  in 
each  department  of  her  work.  To  one  who  asks : 
"  Has  Mrs.  Eddy  lost  her  power  to  heal  ?  "  she  replies 
modestly : 

*'  Has  the  sun  forgotten  to  shine  and  the  planets  to 
revolve  around  it?  Who  is  it  that  discovered,  dem- 
onstrated and  teaches  Christian  Science  ?  That  one, 
whoever  it  be,  does  understand  something  of  what 
cannot  be  lost."  ^ 

To  the  pertinent  question  :  ^'  How  does  Mrs.  Eddy 
knoAv  that  she  has  read  and  studied  correctly  if  one 
must  deny  the  evidences  of  the  senses ;  she  had  to  use 
her  eyes  to  read  ?  "     She  answers  : 

"  Having  eyes  ye  see  not !  I  read  the  inspired  page 
through  a  higher  than  mortal  sense.  As  matter,  the 
eye  cannot  see;  and  as  mortal  mind  it  is  a  helief  that 
sees.  ^  I  may  read  the  Scriptures  through  a  helief  of 
eyesight,  but  I  must  spiritually  understand  them  to 
interpret  their  science."^ 

'  Preface  to  "  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  vii. 
2"  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  54. 
'  "  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  58. 


58  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

Comment  upon  this  would  gild  refined  gold. 

Another  answer  we  quote  with  hesitation,  and  only 
because  it  is  thoroughly  typical.  We  fear  that  ordi- 
nary mortal  minds  will  find  it  not  divinely  graceful 
and  elegant  but  rather  vulgar  and  grossly  irreverent, 
offensive  to  good  taste  and  shocking  to  piety. 

"  Are  hoth  prayer  and  drugs  necessary  to  heal  f  " 
says  the  interlocutor^  and  Mrs.  Eddy  rejMes  :  ''  It  is 
difficult  to  say  how  much  one  can  do  for  himself^ 
lohose  faith  is  divided  between  Catnip  and  Christ  i  hut 
not  so  difficult  to  know  that  if  he  were  to  serve  one 
master  he  coxdd  do  vastly  more.'^^^ 

Mrs.  Eddy's  rhetorical  flowers  are  of  the  gayest, 
and  would  have  delighted  Mrs.  Malaprop.  One  of 
the  most  "  hopelessly  original  "  occurs  in  a  Avarning 
against  Animal  Magnetism,  the  specialty  of  P.  P. 
Quimby,  but  now  considered  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  his  late 
patient,  to  be  the  ''chief  delusion,"  of  which  the 
"  honest  Christian  Scientist "  must  rid  himself  before 
he  can  heal : 

''For  it  is  a  Delilah  loho  would  lead  him  into  the 
toils  of  the  enemy,  where  Cerherus  {the  apt  symhol  of 
Animal  Magnetism)  waits  to  devour  the  self-deceived^'^ 

Against  Delilah  and  Cerberus  thus  conspiring,  one 
would  be  justified  in  combining  with  "  an  allegory 
from  the  banks  of  the  Kile."  She  delights  in  original 
martial  similes,  possibly  from  association  with  Gen. 
Erastus  N.  Bates.     Thus  she  says  : 

"  As  the  pioneer  of  Christian  Science  I  stood  alone 
in  this  conflict,  endeavoring  to  smite  error  with  the 

1  •'  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  pp.  51,  52. 
8  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  73. 


THE   CASE  AGAINST   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.         59 

falchion  of  Truth.  The  rare  bequests  of  Christian 
Science  are  costly,  and  they  have  won  fields  of  battle 
from  Avhich  the  dainty  borrower  would  have  lled."^ 

This  enlistment  of  "  bequests "  in  active  service  is 
more  novel  than  Christian  Science  itself.  In  view  of 
their  cost  and  courage  they  seem  to  be  a  sort  of  Hes- 
sians.    Again  she  writes : 

''With  armor  on,  I  continue  the  march,  command 
and  counter-command,  meanwhile  interluding  with 
loving  thought  this  afterpiece  of  battle.  Supported, 
cheered,  I  take  my  pen  and  pruning-book,  to  '  learn 
war  no  more,'  and  with  strong  wing  to  lift  my  readers 
above  the  smoke  of  conflict  into  light  and  liberty." ' 

Why  should  she  persist  in  marching,  fully  armed, 
commanding  and  counter-commanding  "  with  intelli- 
gent ease,"  if  the  battle  is  over  ?  If  it  is  still  on,  why 
interlude  its  afterpiece,  grasp  pen  and  pruning-hook 
and,  at  the  same  time,  lift  readers  on  a  strong  wing  ? 
It  is  all  sadly  puzzling. 

Criticism  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  poetry  we  shall  not  again 
venture  upon.  The  March  Bevieio  timidly  suggested 
that,  in  rhyming  "  debris  "  with  "  unweary,"  "  ween  " 
with  "dream,"  "now  thus"  with  "hails  us,"  and 
"  deep  "  with  "  complete,"  ^  the  gifted  author,  while 
showing  great  boldness  and  originality,  had  departed 
from  ordinary  rhyming  conventions.  But  this  posi- 
tion was  demolished  by  a  shot  from  the  Christian 
Science  Sentinel,  of  April  20th,  1899. 

"His  condemnations  are  exactly  like  those  usually 
applied  to  Browning  in  regard  to  rhyme  and  meanmg, 

1 '«  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  38. 

2  Preface  to  "  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  x, 

3  See  page  18. 


60  CHKISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

but  no  mother  will  find  fault  with  the  following  coup- 
let from  '  The  Mother's  Evening  Prayer ' : 

«*  *Thou  love  that  guards  the  nestling's  faltering  flight ! 
Keep  thou  my  child  on  upward  wing  to-night.'  " 

We  frankly  admit  that  no  mother  ^vould  find  fault 
with  that  couplet — unless  she  knew^  how  to  parse  sim- 
ple English  sentences ;  and  we  despair  of  answering 
the  argument  that  because  Browning  nods  doggerel  is 
poetry. 

But  however  obscure  Mrs.  Edd}^  may  be  in  her 
poetry  and  controversial  writings,  she  adopts,  in  that 
part  of  "  Miscellaneous  Writings  "  devoted  to  adver- 
tising her  business,  a  clear  stjde  so  remarkably  like 
that  of  another  famous  lady  of  Lynn  that  it  has  caused 
her  to  be  called  "  the  Lydia  Pinkham  of  the  Soul." 
The  certificates  of  cures  about  to  be  quoted  are  in- 
cluded in  Mrs.  Eddy's  "  copyrighted  "  works  ;  and  we 
assume  this  to  indicate  authorship,  for  one  as  scrupu- 
lous as  she  on  this  point  would  scarcely  copyright  the 
productions  of  others.  ^ 

J.  B.  H.  writes : 

"I  am  glad  to  tell  you  how  I  was  healed.  Beliefs 
of  consumption,  dyspepsia,  neuralgia,  piles,   tobacco, 

'  Since  this  paper's  first  appearance,  Mr,  F.  W.  Peabody  of  Boston,  has 
called  attention  to  certain  dates,  as  evidence  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  testimonials 
are  not  always  written  by  their  ostensible  signers  at  tlie  times  alleged. 
The  March  Revie^v  mentioned  the  cure  by  that  lady,  one  afternoon,  of  a 
long-standing  bowel  comjilaint,  in  a  baby  eighteen  months  old,  which  ate 
heartily  of  cabbage  that  night  before  retiring.  The  certificate  of  this  feat 
appears  on  page  200  of  Science  and  Health,  edition  of  1887,  (See  page 
27.)  It  is  signed  L.  C,  Edgecomb,  is  dated  "  Lynn,  June,  1873,"  and 
attributes  the  cure  to  "  Mrs.  Eddy  "  eo  nomine.  But  in  1873  Mother  was, 
presumably,  named  Patterson,  She  does  not  pretend  to  have  married 
Mr.  Eddy  until  1877.  Is  this  discrepancy  of  dates  due  to  lapse  of  memory 
on  the  part  of  the  person  in  charge  of  the  certificate  department,  or  was 
L.  C,  Edgecomb's  gift  of  prophecy  as  remarkable  as  the  Edgecomb  baby's 
digestive  apparatus  ? 


THE   CASE   AGAINST   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.         61 

and  bad  language  held  me  in  bondage  for  many  years. 
Doctors  that  were  consulted  did  nothing  to  relieve  me, 
and  1  constantly  grew  worse.  Nearly  two  years  ago 
a  lady  told  me  that  if  I  would  read  a  book  called 
'Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,' I 
would  be  healed.  I  told  her  I  w^ould  'go  into  it  for 
all  it  was  worth,'  and  I  have  found  that  it  is  worth 
all.  I  got  the  book,  and  read  day  and  night :  I  saw 
that  it  must  be  true,  and  believed  that  what  I  could 
not  then  understand  would  be  made  clear  later. 

"After  some  days'  reading  I  was  affected  with 
drowsiness  followed  by  vomiting.  This  lasted  several 
hours;  when  I  fell  into  a  sleep,  and  awoke  healed." ' 

Here  is  a  letter  bubbling  with  unconscious  humor. 
It  purports  to  come  from  a  gentleman  who  owes  his 
life  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  yet  fears  to  imperil  his  health 
by  visiting  the  author. 

"  Dear  Madam  .-—May  I  thank  you  for  your  book, «  Science  and  Health 
with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,'  and  say  how  much  I  owe  to  it— almost  iny 
very  life — at  a  most  critical  time.     .     .     . 

"  If  k  were  not  for  the  heat  of  your  American  summers  (I  had  nine  at- 
tacks of  dysentery  in  the  last  one),  and  the  expense,  I  should  dearly  like 
to  learn  from  you  personally ;  but  I  must  forego  this,— at  any  rate,  for  the 
present.  If  you  would  write  me  what  the  cost  would  be  for  a  course  on 
Divine  Metaphysics,  I  would  try  to  manage  it  later  on, 

"  Meanwhile,  I  should  be  grateful  if  you  would  refer  me  to  any  one  in 
this  country  who  is  interested  similarly,  for  I  get  more  kicks  than  half- 
pence in  discussing  it. 

"  Your  obliged  friend, 

"  (Rev.)  I.  G.  W.  Bishop. 
"  Bovington  Vicarage, 

"Hemel  Hempstead,  Herts,  England."  2 

K.  L.  H.  recites  this  remarkable  and  instantaneous 
cure  of  a  child  by  a  few  pages  of  "Science  and 
Health." 

"  A  dear  little  six-year-old  boy  of  mv  acquaintance 
was  invited  by  his  teacher,  w4th  the  rest  of  his  class 

^  "  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  405. 
8 ««  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  408. 


62  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

in  Kindergarten  School,  to  attend  a  picnic  one  after- 
noon. He  did  not  feel  that  he  wanted  to  go ;  seemed 
dumpish,  and,  according  to  mortal  belief,  was  not 
well ;  at  noon,  he  said  he  wanted  to  go  to  sleep. 

"  His  mother  took  him  in  her  lap  and  began  to  read 
to  him  from  '  Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the 
Scriptures.'  Very  soon  he  exjyressed  a  wish  to  go  to 
the  picnic  and  did  go.''"'  ^ 

We  have  thus  given  overabundantly  and  tediously, 
perhaps,  sufficient  citations  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  words 
to  enable  any  intelligent  person  to  judge  whether  he 
is  willing  to  accept  her  intellectual  and  spiritual  lead- 
ership, and  to  believe  that  God  waited  nineteen  hun- 
dred years  for  her  to  illuminate,  by  such  jargon  as 
"  Science  and  Health,"  the  teachings  of  Christ,  which, 
she  bluntly  says,  could  not  have  been  apprehended 
from  the  Scriptures  alone  prior  to  the  publication  of 
her  ''  Key."  It  is  with  a  sense  of  intellectual  humilia- 
tion that  we  have  dealt  with  these  dreary  and  vulgar 
banalities.  The  excuse  for  so  doing  is  found,  however, 
in  such  incidents  as  occurred  in  the  City  of  [New  York 
on  Sunday,  the  28th  day  of  May  of  this  year,  1899, 
when  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  was  filled  Avith 
an  audience,  certainly  of  average  intelligence,  to  hear 
the  lecturer  already  referred  to,  Mr.  Carol  Norton,  in- 
troduced by  a  gentleman  holding  judicial  office  in  the 
State,  who  declared  that  legislation  directed  against 
Christian  Science  would  infringe  upon  the  constitu- 
tional right  to  religious  liberty.  While  a  great  num- 
ber in  that  audience  were  animated  by  mere  curiosity, 
undoubtedly  many  accepted  in  good  faith  Mrs.  Eddy's 
claim  to  have  discovered  a  new  religious  truth  capable 

I '«  Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  444. 


THE   CASE   AGAINST   CHRISTIAIS'   SCIENCE.         63 

of  healing  disease  in  marvellous  fashion.  It  is  because 
we  cannot  bring  ourselves  to  believe  that  such  per- 
sons appreciate  the  character  of  their  teacher  or  the 
nature  of  her  pretences  that  we  have  been  willing 
to  reproduce  her  own  account  of  her  life  and  her 
methods. 

AYith  those  who  can  accept  as  divinely  inspired  the 
absurdities,  solecisms  and  incoherencies  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 
and  who  think  to  explain  them  by  saying  that  ob- 
scurities and  errors  are  to  be  found  in  works  of  the 
great  writers,  there  can  be  no  argument.  ^'  Intelligent 
ease  "  in  shifting  premises  precludes  discussion.  How 
could  the  Bishop  argue  with  the  genial  madman  who, 
after  introducing  himself  as  George  Washington,  said 
a  few  moments  later  that  he  was  Napoleon  Bonaparte  ? 
"  But,"  said  the  Bishop,  "  a  moment  ago  you  were  Wash- 
ington." "  So  I  was,"  said  the  bedlamite  with  "  in- 
telligent ease,"  "  but  by  another  mother."  It  is  en- 
tirely possible,  however,  to  state  the  case  against  this 
pseudo  philosophy  convincingly  to  those  who  are  in- 
terested in  it  because  of  its  alleged  miraculous  cures. 

First.  As  a  mere  religious  or  philosophic  theory, 
Christian  Science  never  would  have  had  any  vogue. 
Its  fascination  lies  in  its  pretended  cures.  Xo  one 
suggests  taking  action  to  restrain  it  as  a  form  of  wor- 
ship. The  most  that  has  been  suggested  in  regard  to 
it  has  been  that  its  ignorant  votaries  should  not  be  al- 
lowed to  trifle  with  the  life  and  health  of  adults,  chil- 
dren and  the  entire  community,  by  assuming  the  treat- 
ment of  all  classes  of  disease,  including  surgical  cases 
and  contagious  and  infectious  maladies.  To  say  it  is  in- 
fringement of  religious  liberty  to  require  the  same  skill 


64  CHKISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

and  knowledge  of  Christian  Scientists,  engaging  in  the 
business  of  curing  the  sick  for  hire,  as  is  required  of 
Presbyterians  or  Catholics  in  the  same  business  shows 
ignorance  of  the  constitutional  doctrine  of  the  Mor- 
mon cases,  or  carelessness  of  statement,  or  such  wil- 
ful misstatement  as  Mrs.  Eddy  personally  was  guilty 
of  when  she  said  that  infringement  of  copyright  is 
theft,  punishable  criminally. 

Second.  Christian  Science  has  no  healing  power 
peculiar  to  itself,  as  distinguished  from  faith  cure  or 
any  other  method  of  diverting  the  mind  from  the  ills 
of  the  body.  If  it  had  such  divine  power,  its  applica- 
tion would  be  universal ;  it  would  be  effective  in  sur- 
gery as  in  physic.  Mrs.  Eddy  pretends  that  this  uni- 
versal applicability  exists  ;  but,  in  admitting  that  for 
the  present  "  it  is  better  to  leave  the  adjustment,  of 
broken  bones  and  dislocations  to  the  fingers  of  sur- 
geons," ^  she  confesses  the  falsity  of  her  treatment  and 
the  impotence  of  her  method.  Mr.  Norton  has  re- 
cently shown  the  same  lack  of  faith  and  of  ability  to 
match  promise  with  performance.  Having  offered  to 
give  medical  proof  of  cures  of  cancer,  locomotor 
ataxia,  etc.,  he  was  asked  to  name  the  diagnostician 
and  describe  the  treatment,  the  precautions  to  exclude 
other  factors  of  cure,  and  the  patients'  present  condi- 
tion. He  produced  in  fact  no  testimony  of  evidential 
force  to  trained  minds,  but  only  certificates  of  Christian 
Scientists  similar  in  kind  and  value  to  the  "  puffs " 
above  quoted  from  "  Miscellaneous  Writings."  He 
was  asked  how  he  would  treat  these  cases  of  emer- 
gency :    a  cranial  wound  caused  by  a  falling  brick ; 

1  Page  28. 


THE   CASE   AGAINST   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.         65 

strangulation  of  a  child  from  swallowing  a  fish  bone ; 
exposure  of  a  child  to  confluent  smallpox ;  severing 
of  a  child's  artery  by  a  cable  car  accident ;  fracture 
of  a  baby's  skull  by  a  fall.  He  was  also  asked  if  in 
curing  cancers  he  made  differential  diagnosis  between 
them,  boils,  carbuncles,  etc.  Lest  he  be  misquoted 
his  written  words  are  given  : 

"  I  make  no  diagnosis  except  along  the  lines  of  con- 
sistent mental  ihera^eiitics.  An  expert  in  mental 
therapeutics  will  naturally  know  the  character  of  this 
diagnosis.  Discord  is  discord.  Pain  is  pain.  Dis- 
ease is  disease.  The  principle  that  cures  one  if  rightly 
applied,  will  citre  all.  This  is  the  beginning  and  end 
of  rational  mental  healing.  In  relation  to  mental 
treatment  for  a  severed  artery,  I  said  simply  that  /  he- 
lieved-  \)ii^  proper  application  of  Mind  power  would  do 
the  same  work,  if  not  better,  than  any  other  method. 
I  beg  that  you  quote  me  correctly,  if  you  ever  quote 
me,  and  I  most  thoroughly  disagree  with  the  under- 
standing you  got  about  diagnosis.  In  reply  to  the 
list  of  questions  that  you  wrote  to  me  in  a  recent  let- 
ter, I  have  but  to  repeat  my  recent  utterances  in  a 
letter  to  you,  that  I  prefer  to  shelve  them,  because  to 
answer  them  would  bring  about  wholly  indiiferent  re- 
sults." 

The  italics  are  his  and  ours.  To  say  that  Christian 
Science  is  efficacious  if  rightly  or  jproperly  applied 
leaves  open  a  wide  door.  To  shelve  the  other  ques- 
tions confesses  inability  to  answer  them  without  mak- 
ing fatal  admissions.  To  say  "  Fain  is  pain.  Disease 
is  disease  "  flatly  contradicts  Mrs.  Eddy.^ 

'  The  correspondence  is  more  fully  set  out  in  a  letter  to  the  New  York 
Sun  published  on  June  9,  1899,  ^r^<^  appearing  here  in  the  appendix, 
(pps.  165,  182),  Mr.  Norton  has  never,  to  the  writer's  knowledge,  denied 
the  fairness  or  traversed  the  accuracy  of  its  statements. 


66  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

Third.  Why  is  it  then  that  Christian  Science  is 
credited  with  these  marvellous  cures,  if  its  foremost 
professors  cannot  adduce  any  better  proofs  of  them 
than  are  afforded  by  certificates  no  better  in  manner 
and  degree  than  those  accompanying  every  quack 
nostrum  that  is  advertised.  The  explanation  is 
simple.  In  perhaps  the  majority  of  cases  to  which 
physicians  are  called,  nothing  more  is  needed  than 
resrimen  and  the  mental  stimulus  that  comes  to  the 
patient  Avith  knowledge  that  he  is  under  skilled  care. 
If  a  physician  falls  ill,  he  calls  another  to  attend  him, 
chiefly  for  the  sake  of  this  mental  stimulus  and  to 
eliminate  the  personal  factor.  Drugs  and  surgical 
appliances  may  be  needed  in  only  a  small  proportion  of 
cases ;  but,  like  a  revolver  in  Texas,  they  are  needed 
greatly  when  the  occasion  arises.  Many  diseases  are 
self  limited,  many  are  feigned,  or  due  to  a  fixed  idea 
which  may  operate  even  in  surgery,  as  when  a  pa- 
tient, under  the  erroneous  impression  that  his  leg  is 
broken,  unconsciously  inhibits  muscular  action  and  is 
unable  to  put  foot  to  the  ground,  until  dispossessed  of 
the  inhibitory  idea  by  mechanical  devices  or  any 
method,  even  Christian  Science,  changing  the  mental 
attitude.  In  all  such  cases,  whatever  removes  the 
mental  tension  may  be  beneficial.  Many  patients 
w^ould  get  well  without  any  attendance  at  all.  To 
take  an  illustration:  Child-birth,  in  which  Christian 
Scientists  profess  great  success,  is  not  a  disease,  but 
the  operation  of  a  normal  function.  In  the  absence 
of  complications,  attendance  is  not  necessary  although 
it  may  be  desirable.  But  in  the  presence  of  certain 
complications,  the  very  highest  skill  is  necessary  to 


THE   CASE   AGAINST   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.        67 

save  life.  "Will  any  sane  person  say  that,  because  in 
the  vast  majority  of  cases  children  may  be  brought 
into  the  world  safely  under  the  attendance  of  a  Chris- 
tian Scientist,  such  a  person  is  to  be  pardoned  who 
undertakes  such  a  complication  as  that  of  placenta 
praevia  with  neither  medical  skill  nor  knowledge? 
Will  any  parent  be  willing,  in  case  a  child's  artery  is 
severed,  to  call  a  Christian  Scientist  rather  than  a  sur- 
geon ?  Upon  the  answers  to  these  questions  depends 
the  acceptance  by  reasoning  persons  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
theory  and  claim  that  her  followers  can  cure  all  forms 
of  human  maladies  and  injuries,  and  that  they  should 
be  allowed  to  treat  medical  and  surgical  cases  without 
the  responsibility  for  malpractice  that  rests  upon 
medical  men. 

We  devoutly  believe  that  Mrs.  Eddy  is  an  instru- 
ment in  the  hands  of  God,  not  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations,  but  to  humble  us  intellectually  by  showing 
that,  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  professedly 
intelligent  persons  can  be  as  easily  duped  by  her  as 
their  forebears  were  by  Cagliostro  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth. 


Ill 

MANSLAUGHTER,  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  AND   THE 
LAW^ 

The  recent  death  of  Mr.  Harold  Frederic  under  the 
treatment  of  a  Christian  Scientist,  and  the  latter's  in- 
dictment by  an  English  jury,  have  renewed  the  dis- 
cussion by  professional  and  lay  journals  of  what  is 
and  what  should  be  the  bearing  of  the  law  upon  such 
cases. 

The  N^ew  York  Times ^  of  which  he  was  correspond- 
ent, writes  editorially  of  "  Faith-Cure  Murders ; "  the 
Sun  of  "Manslaughter  by  Christian  Science."  The 
current  law  journals  comment  upon  the  case.  Un- 
fortunately such  happenings  are  neither  modern  nor 
rare. 

Coincidently  with  Mr.  Frederic's  death  from  pneu- 
monia in  England,  the  newspapers  also  report  the 
deaths  of  Messrs.  Kershaw  in  Tacoma,  and  McDowell 
in  Cincinnati,  and  Mrs.  BroAvn  of  Washington;  the 
first  of  pneumonia,  the  second  of  typhoid  fever,  the 
last  of  an  unnamed  malady — all  the  diseases  being 
complicated  with  Christian  Science.  It  is  only  Fred- 
eric's prominence  as  a  journalist  and  fiction  writer 
that  brings  his  case  nearer  home  to  the  multitude. 

The  ordinary  quack  is  content  to  lay  claim  to  some 

J  New  York  Medical  Record,  Nov.  26,  1898. 

69 


YO  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

special  skill  or  knowledge  in  the  use  of  natural  methods 
or  remedies.  Thus  in  February,  18U6,  one  John  M. 
Crous  induced  the  same  Legislature  of  New  York  that 
in  the  following  April  chartered  the  existing  county 
and  State  medical  societies  to  authorize  by  special  act 
the  purchase  for  $1,000  and  publication  in  the  State 
papers  of  his  "  perfect  and  infallible  remedy  and  cure 
for  hydrophobia  or  canine  madness."  And  a  wonder- 
ful remedy  it  was.  ^ 

In  the  following  year  an  act  (ch.  10-i,  11.  1807)  was 
passed  prohibiting  unlicensed  practice  of  medicine ; 
W' ith  the  proviso,  however,  that  it  should  not  be  con- 

1  Here  is  the  prescription,  and  it  certainly  seems  adequate  to  put  an  end 
to  hydrophobia  or  any  other  malady  : 

'«  First :  Take  one  ounce  of  the  jawbone  of  a  dog,  burned  and  pulver- 
ized, or  pounded  to  fine  dust. 

"  Secondly:  Take  the  false  tongue  of  a  newly  foaled  colt;  let  that  be 
also  dried  and  pulverized  ;  and, 

"  Thirdly :  Take  one  scruple  of  verdigris,  which  is  raised  on  the  sur- 
face of  old  copper  by  lying  in  the  moist  earth ;  the  coppers  of  George  I. 
or  II.  are  the  purest  and  best.  Mix  these  ingredients  together,  and  if  the 
person  be  an  adult  or  full  grown,  take  one  common  teaspoonful  a  day, 
and  so  in  proportion  for  a  child  according  to  its  age.  In  one  hour  after 
take  the  filings  of  the  one-half  of  a  copper  of  the  above  kind,  if  to  be 
had  ;  if  not,  then  a  small  increased  quantity  of  any  baser  metal  of  the 
kind ;  this  to  be  taken  in  a  small  quantity  of  water. 

"The  next  morning,  fasting  (or  before  eating),  repeat  the  same  as  be- 
fore. This,  if  complied  with  after  the  biting  of  a  dog,  and  before  the 
symptoms  of  madness,  will  effectually  prevent  any  appearance  of  disorder; 
but  after  the  symptoms  shall  appear  a  physician  must  immediately  be  ap- 
plied to,  to  administer  the  following,  viz: 

"  Three  drachms  of  the  verdigris  of  the  kind  before  mentioned,  mixed 
with  half  an  ounce  of  calomel,  to  be  taken  at  one  dose.  This  quantity 
the  physician  need  not  fear  to  administer,  as  the  reaction  of  the  venom 
will  then  diffuse  through  the  whole  system  of  the  patient,  neutralize  con- 
siderably the  powerful  quality  of  the  medicine  ;  and, 

"  Secondly :  If  in  four  hours  thereafter  the  patient  is  not  completely 
relieved,  administer  four  grains  of  pure  opium  or  one  hundred  and  twenty 
drops  of  liquid  laudanum. 

"  N.  B. — The  patient  must  be  careful  to  avoid  the  use  of  milk  for  sev- 
eral days  after  taking  any  of  the  foregoing  medicine. 

«*  John  M.  Crous." 


MANSLAUGHTER  AND   THE   LAW.  Tl 

strued  to  debar  any  one  from  using,  or  applying  for 
the  benefit  of  the  sick,  roots  or  herbs  the  growth 
or  product  of  the  United  States.  This  exception  fa- 
vored at  once  the  principle  of  protection  to  the  indus- 
try of  home  herbs  and  the  teachings  of  the  Thomso- 
nian  or  botanic  school  of  medicine,  founded  upon  the 
simple,  obvious  theory  that  mineral  remedies  are  in- 
jurious because,  their  nature  being  to  remain  in  the 
earth,  they  tend  to  drag  man  down  to  the  grave; 
while  herbs,  having  by  nature  an  upward,  skyward 
thrust,  tend,  on  the  contrary,  to  the  advancement  of 
those  whose  midst  they  penetrate. 

This  system,  once  as  popular  as  Christian  Science, 
furnished  the  leading  American  case  on  manslaughter 
by  medical  malpractice,  that  of  Commonwealth  v. 
Thomson  (6  Mass.  134).  It  there  appeared  that  Sam- 
uel Thomson,  founder  of  the  system,  undertook  to 
cure  "  all  fevers,  whether  black,  grey,  green,  or  yel- 
low." His  staple  remedies  were  "  coffee,"  so-called, 
"  well  my  gristle,"  and  "  ram-cats."  Being  summoned 
on  Jan.  2, 1809,  to  attend  Ezra  Lovett,  ill  of  "  a  cold," 
he  ordered  a  fire  built,  put  Lovett's  feet  on  a  stove  of 
hot  coals,  wrapped  him  in  a  blanket,  and,  with  a 
powder  given  in  water,  "  puked  "  him — to  use  the 
simple  language  of  the  day — violently  thrice  within 
half  an  hour,  meantime  administering  copiously  the 
warm  "coffee."  He  then  put  Lovett  to  bed,  and 
sweated  and  "  puked  "  him  pretty  steadily  for  three 
days,  the  patient  growing  weaker  and  weaker,  until, 
poor  soul !  he  could  puke  no  more.  Then  Thomson 
asked  "how  far  down  the  medicine  had  got,"  and, 
Lovett  indicating  his  chest,  the  quack  said  that  the 


72  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE. 

medicine  "  would  soon  get  down  and  unscrew  his 
navel."  On  the  third  day  the  patient  "  lost  his  mind 
and  went  into  convulsions,"  which  condition  lasted 
until  the  eighth  day,  Jan.  10,  when  he  died.  The 
"  coffee  "  proved  to  be  a  decoction  of  marshrosemary 
and  the  bark  of  the  bay  berry  bush ;  the  powder  was 
Indian  tobacco  or  Lobelia  infiata.  There  was  no  evi- 
dence that  defendant  had  killed  any  one  else ;  on  the 
contrary,  there  was  testimony  of  benefit  in  one  case 
from  his  treatment.  The  court,  therefore,  did  not  put 
him  to  his  defence,  but,  ruling  that  the  commonwealth 
had  failed  to  make  out  a  case  even  of  manslaughter, 
charged  the  jury  to  this  effect :  Deceased,  beyond 
reasonable  doubt,  lost  his  life  by  defendant's  unskil- 
ful treatment.  But  there  could  be  no  murder,  unless 
the  prisoner  was  wilfully  regardless  of  his  social  duty 
and  determined  on  mischief,  of  which  there  was  no 
proof ;  on  the  contrary,  his  intent  was  to  cure.  Nei- 
ther could  there  be  manslaughter ;  for,  although  de- 
fendant's ignorance  was  very  apparent,  nevertheless, 
if  he  honestly  intended  to  cure,  he  could  not  be  guilty 
of  that  crime  on  account  of  death  unexpectedly  ensu- 
ing from  his  treatment,  unless  he  was  engaged  in  an 
unlawful  act ;  and  there  was  no  law  in  Massachusetts 
forbidding  any  man,  honestly  intending  to  cure,  from 
prescribing  for  a  sick  man  with  the  latter's  consent. 
The  court  cited  Lord  Hale  as  authorit}^  for  the  propo- 
sition that,  "  if  a  physician,  whether  licensed  or  not, 
gives  a  person  a  potion,  without  any  intent  of  doing 
him  any  bodily  hurt,  but  with  intent  to  cure  or  pre- 
vent a  disease,  and,  contrary  to  the  expectation  of  the 
physician,  it  kills  him,  he  is  not  guilty  of  murder  or 


MANSLAUGHTEK  AKD   THE   LAW.  T3 

manslaughter  ; "  and,  accordingly,  laid  down  this  law 
for  the  case : 

"  The  death  of  a  man,  killed  by  voluntarily  follow- 
ing a  medical  prescription,  cannot  be  adjudged  a 
felony  in  the  party  prescribing,  unless  he,  however 
ignorant  of  medical  science  in  general,  had  so  much 
knowledge  or  probable  information  of  the  fatal  tend- 
ency of  the  prescription  that  it  may  be  reasonably 
presumed  by  the  jury  to  be  the  effect  of  obstinate, 
wilful  rashness,  at  the  least,  and  not  of  an  honest  in- 
tention and  expectation  to  cure." 

The  court  further  said  that  if  the  solicitor-general 
had  proved,  as  he  promised  to  do  in  his  opening,  that 
Thomson  had  killed  others  by  his  treatment,  it  would 
have  been  left  to  the  jury  to  say  whether  on  the 
whole  evidence  they  would  sustain  the  charge  of  man- 
slaughter ;  which  they  might  justly  have  done  if  they 
had  found  that  defendant  acted  from  "  obstinate  rash- 
ness and  foolhardy  presumption,  although  without  in- 
tent to  do  Lovett  bodily  harm ; "  for  it  would  not 
have  been  lawful  for  him  again  to  administer  a 
medicine  of  which  he  had  such  fatal  experience." 
Upon  this  reasoning  Thomson  was  acquitted  ;  and  his 
case  having  proved,  as  a  precedent,  a  strong  shield  for 
manslaughtering  charlatans,  by  establishing  what  has 
been  called  the  humane  American  rule  as  contrasted 
with  the  strict  rule  of  common  law,  it  is  well  to  state 
succinctly  the  reasons  why  he  escaped  conviction, 
viz :  (1)  because  there  was  no  statute  in  Massachu- 
setts prohibiting  medical  practice  by  the  ignorant 
and  unlicensed ;  (2)  because  there  was  no  proof  that 
Thomson  (a)  knew  his  treatment  to  be  dangerous  or 
(b)  had  any  other  intent  than  to  cure  in  good  faith. 


T4  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

In  18tl:2  the  question  arose  in  Xew  York,  upon  an 
application  for  a  bill  of  discovery,  in  Marsh  v.  Davison 
(9  Paige  580),  whether  it  was  slanderous  to  have  said 
of  complainant  that  he  was  guilty  of  malpractice  as  a 
cancer  doctor  and  had  killed  a  woman  in  Schoharie. 
Davison  not  being  licensed  to  practice,  the  court  held 
that — inasmuch  as  he  might  be  guilty  of  man- 
slaughter, for  that  reason,  if  the  patient  died  under 
his  treatment — the  words  might  be  slanderous. 

It  thus  appears  that — even  accepting  the  benign 
rule  of  Thomson's  case,  which,  as  we  shall  see  pres- 
ently, was  ill  stated — wherever  a  statute  makes  the 
unlicensed  practice  of  medicine  a  misdemeanor,  if 
death  result  from  the  treatment  of  a  non-licentiate  he 
is  guilty  of  manslaughter  at  least,  no  matter  how 
honest  his  intent.  This  is  the  rule  of  common  law 
and  of  the  JS^ew  York  penal  code,  which  defines  as 
manslaughter  the  killing  of  one  human  being  by  the 
act,  procurement,  or  omission  of  another,  Avithout  de- 
sign to  effect  death,  by  a  person  engaged  in  commit- 
ting or  attempting  to  commit  a  misdemeanor  affecting 
the  person  or  property,  either  of  the  person  killed  or 
of  another. 

In  1844  the  case  of  Eice  v.  The  State  (8  Mo.  561) 
was  decided  in  Missouri.  Eice,  a  Thomsonian,  under- 
took by  the  same  methods  used  on  Lovett  to  cure  Mrs. 
Keithley  of  sciatica.  She  had  not  been  so  well  for 
years  as  when  he  began  to  treat  her,  and  was  within 
six  weeks  of  giving  birth  to  her  fourth  child.  Under 
his  system  she  fell  into  premature  labor  and  died 
within  about  ten  days.  He  was  convicted  of  man- 
slaughter ;  but  the  appellate  court,  adopting  the  rule 


Manslaughter  and  the  law.  Y5 

in  Thomson's  case,  the  facts  being  substantially  the 
same,  reversed  the  judgment. 

In  1881  another  case  arose,  in  Iowa,  State  v.  Schulz 
(55  la.  628).  Schulz  treated  a  sick  woman  by  acu- 
puncture and  an  irritating  oil,  according  to  the  sys- 
tem of  Herr  Baunscheidt,  who,  having  been  much 
benefited  by  the  bitings  of  small  insects,  sought  to 
give  the  world,  for  a  consideration,  a  simulacrum  of 
his  experience.  Defendant  admitted  that  he  did  not 
know  the  composition  of  the  oil,  that  being  Baun- 
scheidt's  secret.  The  patient  died.  Schulz  claimed 
that  if  he  had  not  been  interfered  with  he  could  have 
helped  her,  and  produced  twenty -three  witnesses  to 
testify  that  Baunscheidtismus,  as  administered  by  him, 
had  benefited  them.  Schulz  was  convicted,  but  the 
appellate  court  reversed  the  judgment,  following  the 
cases  of  Thomson  and  Eice,  and  expressed  this  con- 
clusion :  "  The  interests  of  society  will  be  subserved 
by  holding  a  physician  civilly  liable  in  damages  for 
the  consequences  of  his  ignorance,  without  imposing 
upon  him  criminal  liabilities  when  he  acts  with  good 
motives  and  honest  intentions."  The  adoption  of  this 
theory  by  the  'New  York  statute  of  1841:  enabled 
quackery,  in  the  words  of  Beardesley,  J.,  to  "  boast  its 
triumphant  and  complete  establishment  by  law" 
(Bailey  v.  Mogg,  4  Den.  60).  And  the  people  of 
Iowa,  instead  of  adhering  to  it,  have  passed,  since  the 
Schulz  case,  a  law  forbidding  medical  practice  to  the 
unlicensed. 

N'otwithstanding  these  acceptances  of  the  rule  in 
Thomson's  case  by  other  jurisdictions  as  sound  law, 
the    Supreme    Court    of    Massachusetts,    wherein    it 


76  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

^"originated,  has  since  held,  in  Commonwealth  v.  Pierce 
]  (138  Mass.  165,  A.  D.  1881),  that  the  accuracy  of  its 
report  was  doubtful  and  its  law  open  to  criticism. 
The  facts  in  Pierce's  case  were  these :  Defendant  held 
himself  out  as  a  physician.  There  was  no  more  law  in 
Massachusetts  to  prevent  him  from  so  doing  in  1881 
than  there  had  been  to  prevent  Thomson's  like  preten- 
sion in  1809.  Being  called  to  a  sick  woman,  Mary 
Berais,  he  caused  her,  she  consenting,  to  be  kept  for  some 
three  days  swathed  in  flannel  underclothing,  saturated 
with  kerosene.  Under  this  treatment  she  died  in  great 
misery.  There  was  evidence  in  the  case  that  in  some 
instances  similar  treatment  by  defendant  had  resulted 
favorably,  but  also  that  in  one  it  had  burned  and 
blistered  the  flesh,  as  in  the  case  of  deceased.  De- 
fendant's counsel  at  trial  asked  the  court  to  charge, 
following  the  rule  in  Thomson's  case,  that  defendant 
could  not  be  convicted  unless  it  were  proven  beyond 
reasonable  doubt  that  death  resulted  from  his  treat- 
ment and  that  he  had  such  knowledge  or  probable  in- 
formation of  the  fatal  tendency  of  his  prescription  as 
to  justify  the  jury  in  presuming  that  death  was  the 
effect  of  his  obstinate  or  Avilful  recklessness,  and  not 
of  an  honest  intent  and  expectation  to  cure.  This  re- 
quest was  refused,  defendant  was  convicted,  and  his 
conviction  affirmed  by  the  appellate  court,  who,  by 
Holmes,  J.,  said  that  the  language  of  Thomson's  case 
relied  upon  by  defendant — viz,  that  "  to  constitute 
manslaughter  the  killing  must  have  been  a  conse- 
quence of  some  unlawful  act.  Now  there  is  no  law 
which  prohibits  any  man  from  prescribing  for  a  sick 
person,  with  his  consent,  if  he  honestly  intends  to  cure 


MAKSLAUaHTER  AKD   THE  LAW.  YT 

him  by  his  prescription  " — was  ambiguous  and  wrong, 
if  it  meant  that  the  killing  must  be  the  consequence 
of  an  act  which  is  unlawful  for  independent  reasons 
apart  from  its  likelihood  to  kill."  "  Such,"  continued 
the  court,  "  may  once  have  been  the  law ;  but  for  a 
long  time  it  has  been  just  as  fully,  and  latterly,  we 
may  add,  much  more  willingly,  recognized  that  a  man 
may  commit  murder  or  manslaughter  by  doing  other- 
wise lawful  acts  recklessly,  as  that  he  may  by  doing 
acts  unlaAvful  for  independent  reasons,  from  which 
death  accidentally  ensues."  Thomson's  case,  it  was 
said,  did  not  intend  to  lay  down  new  law,  but  cited 
and  meant  to  follow  Lord  Hale,  whom  it  had  taken 
too  literally,  since  his  lordship  admitted  that  other 
persons  might  make  themselves  liable  by  reckless  con- 
duct (I.  P.  C.  472) ;  and  why  not  a  physician  as  well  ? 
As  to  what  constitutes  criminal  recklessness  in  such 
cases,  the  court  said  substantially  that  the  standard  is 
not  gauged  by  the  actor's  belief  or  idea  of  danger,  but 
by  common  experience.  If  the  thing  done  "  is  gen- 
erally supposed  to  be  universally  harmless  and  only  a 
specialist  would  foresee  that  in  a  given  case  it  would 
do  damage,  a  person  who  did  not  foresee  it  and 
who  had  no  warning  would  not  be  held  liable  for 
the  harm.  .  .  .  The  use  of  the  thing  must  be 
dangerous  according  to  common  experience,  at  least 
to  the  extent  that  there  is  a  manifest  and  appre- 
ciable chance  of  harm  from  what  is  done,  in 
view  either  of  the  actor's  knowledge  or  of  his  con- 
scious ignorance.  .  .  .  Common  experience  is 
necessary  to  the  man  of  ordinary  prudence,  and  a 
man  who  assumes  to  act  as  the  defendant  did  must 


YS  CHElSTlAN   SCIENCE. 

have  it  at  his  peril.  .  .  .  The  defendant  knew  he 
was  using  kerosene.  The  jury  have  found  that  it  was 
applied  as  the  result  of  foolhardy  presumption  or  gross 
negligence,  and  that  is  enough.  .  .  .  Indeed,  if  the 
defendant  had  known  the  fatal  tendency  of  the  pre- 
scription, he  would  have  been  perillously  near  the  line 
of  murder."  The  rule  laid  down  in  this  carefully 
reasoned  case  must  commend  itself  to  prudent  men ; 
for  it  really  amounts  only  to  this — that  if  one  unversed 
and  unskilled  in  medical  science  and  practice  under- 
takes, nevertheless,  the  cure  of  a  patient,  and  in  so 
doing  uses  remedies  or  adopts  a  treatment — whether 
positive  or  negative  ought  to  make  no  difference — 
from  which  there  is  a  manifest  and  appreciable  chance 
of  harm  according  to  common  experience,  he  shall  be 
held  liable  for  his  recklessness  and  shall  not  be  excused 
by  the  innocence  of  his  intention.  And  certainly  when 
part  of  the  treatment  adopted  is  the  exclusion  of  proper 
treatment,  this  is  just  as  harmful  as  if  positivel}^  in- 
jurious methods  were  adopted.  It  is  just  as  much 
homicide  to  cause  death  by  starvation  by  keeping 
food  from  the  victim  as  to  use  an  active  poison. 

How  does  this  principle  apply  to  "  Christian 
Science,"  ''faith  cure,"  or  any  eccentric  treatment 
of  the  sick — not  excluding  voudoo  or  the  "  scandal 
cure  "  ^ — that  by  operating  strongly  on  the  mind  may 
restore  the  lost  equilibrium  ?  Is  the  pursuit  of  any  of 
these  methods  "  practice  of  medicine  "  ? 

1  I  knew  once  of  a  nialade  hriaginaire  who  for  years  had  drifted 
feebly  from  bed  to  lounge  and  back  again.  Physicians  were  in  vain. 
One  day  a  friend  called  and  said  that  the  newspapers  had  gotten  hold  of  a 
bit  of  history  that  would  interest  the  nation  on  the  following  Sunday.  The 
patient  leaj^ed  from  the  lounge,  took  a  cab  to  the  steamer  office,  and  by 
Sunday  was  on  the  ocean.     This  is  the  "  scandal  cure." 


MANSLAUGHTER  AND   THE   LAW.  79 

While  the  ordinary  quack,  who,  as  has  been  said, 
pretends  only  to  extraordinary  human  skill  or  knowl- 
edge, is,  therefore,  generally  held  to  be  a  practitioner 
of  medicine.  Christian  Scientists,  who  go  further  and 
pretend  to  procure  for  lucre  divine  intervention  by 
their  prayers,  contend  that  in  thus  offering  to  heal  the 
sick,  although  for  hire,  they  are  not  practicing  medi- 
cine, but  observing  religious  rites,  and  are  therefore 
protected  in  their  practices  by  constitutional  safe- 
guards. We  are  thus  brought  to  consider  what  is  the 
"practice  of  medicine."  The  answer  to  this  query 
must  depend  in  most  instances  upon  the  words  of  the 
statute  and  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  case.  In 
the  'New  York  case  of  Smith  v.  Lane  (24  Hun,  632,  A. 
D.  1881),  plaintiff,  apparently  a  masseur,  sued  for 
agreed  fees  which  defendant  refused  to  pay  on  the 
ground  that  plaintiff,  not  being  licensed  to  practice 
medicine,  could  not  recover  compensation  for  his  treat- 
ment, which,  as  the  opinion  of  the  court  recites,  "  con- 
sisted entirely  of  manipulation  with  the  hand.  It  was 
performed  by  rubbing,  kneading,  and  pressure."  The 
court  said : 

"  The  practice  of  medicine  is  a  pursuit  very  generally 
known  and  understood,  and  so  also  is  that  of  surgery. 
The  former  includes  the  application  and  use  of  medi- 
cines and  drugs  for  the  purpose  of  curing,  mitigating 
or  alleviating  bodily  diseases ;  while  the  functions  of 
the  latter  are  limited  to  manual  operations,  usually 
performed  by  surgical  instruments  or  appliances. 
.  .  .  To  allow  incompetent  or  unqualified  persons 
to  administer  or  apply  medical  agents,  or  to  perfonp 
surgical  operations,  would  be  highly  dangerous  to  the 
health  as  well  as  the  lives  of  the  persons  who  might 


80  CHEISTIAN  SCIENCE. 

be  operated  upon,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
lasting  and  serious  injuries  as  well  as  the  loss  of  life 
have  been  produced  by  the  improper  use  of  medical 
agents  and  surgical  instruments  or  appliances.  It  was 
the  purpose  and  object  of  the  Legislature  by  this  act 
to  prevent  a  continuance  of  deleterious  practices  of 
this  nature,  and  to  confine  the  uses  of  medicine  and 
the  operations  of  surgery  to  a  class  of  persons  who, 
upon  examination,  should  be  found  competent  and 
qualified  to  follow  these  professional  pursuits.  No 
such  danger  could  possibly  arise  from  the  treatTnent  to 
which  the  plaintiff'' s  occupation  was  confined.  While 
it  might  he  no  benefit^  it  could  hardly  he  possible  that 
it  could  result  in  harm  or  injtiry. 

"  And  for  that  reason  no  necessity  existed  for  inter- 
fering Avith  this  pursuit  by  any  action  on  the  part  of 
the  Legislature.  It  may  be  that  credulous  persons 
would  be  deceived  into  the  employment  of  the 
plaintiff,  and  in  that  manner  subjected  to  imposition. 
But  it  was  no  part  of  the  purposes  of  this  act  to  pre- 
vent persons  from  being  made  the  subjects  of  mere 
imposition." 

Either  the  italicized  words  are  superfluous  or  they 
contain  an  implication  that  if  the  treatment,  in  the 
court's  opinion,  had  been  capable  of  causing  injury 
like  improper  medical  treatment,  the  judges  would 
have  classified  it  in  the  same  category. 

In  Eastman  v.  State  (10  jN".  E.  97),  an  Indiana  case, 
the  court  said,  on  the  other  hand  :  "  It  is  the  purpose 
of  the  statute  to  prevent  persons  who  do  not  possess 
the  necessary  qualifications  to  practice  medicine  or 
surgery  from  inflicting  injury  upon  the  citizens  by 
undertaking  to  treat  diseases,  wounds  and  injuries." 
And  again :  "  The  State  has  an  interest  in  the  life  and 
health  of  all  its  citizens,  and  the  law  under  examina- 


MANSLAUGHTER  AND   THE  LAW.  81 

tion  was  framed,  not  to  bestow  favors  upon  a  par- 
ticular profession,  but  to  discharge  one  of  the  highest 
duties  of  the  State— that  of  protecting  its  citizens  from 
injury  and  harm."  In  People  v.  Phippin  (70  Mich. 
6),  the  defendant  was  held  to  have  practiced  medicine, 
on  proof  that  he  held  himself  out  as  ''Dr.  W.  W. 
Phippin,  magnetic  healer,"  had  attempted  to  cure  the 
sick,  and  in  the  case  of  a  child's  death  had  certified 
the  cause  to  be  "  canker,  sore  mouth.  Duration  of 
disease:  June  3  to  July  22,  1887."  In  Bibber  v. 
Simpson  (59  Maine  181),  a  clairvoyant  who  gave 
remedies  was  said  to  be  practicing  medicine.  So  also 
in  E'elson  v.  Harrington  (72  Wis.  591).  And  in  New 
York,  De  Leon,  who  prescribed  for  a  child,  drawing 
its  horoscope  and  giving  some  rhubarb,  was  convicted 
of  illegal  practice  of  medicine.  The  administration 
of  electricity  has  also  been  held  to  constitute  medical 
practice— Davison  v.  Bohlman  (37  Mo.  App.  576). 

The  Ohio  statute  provides  that  "  Any  person  shall 
be  regarded  as  practicing  medicine  or  surgery,  within 
the  meaning  of  this  act,  Avho  shall  append  the  letters 
M.  D.  or  M.  B.  to  his  name,  or  for  a  fee  prescribe, 
direct  or  recommend  for  the  use  of  any  person  any 
drug  or  medicine  or  other  agency  for  the  treatment, 
cure  or  relief  of  any  wound,  fracture,  or  bodily  injury, 
infirmity  or  disease."  That  seems  very  broad  ;  but  in 
case  of  Eastman  v.  State  (6  Ohio  Dec.  296),  it  was 
held,  in  January,  1897,  that  a  "graduate  of  the  school 
of  osteopathy  of  Kirkville,  Mo.,"  was  not  practicing 
medicine  by  kneading  and  manipulations,  using  only 
his  hands  and  no  medicines.  The  court  cited  Smith 
V.  Lane,  and  held  that  the  words,  "  any  other  agency," 


82  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

were  too  vague  and  were  limited  by  the  particular 
words,  "drug  or  medicine."  ^ 

The  New  York  statute  does  not  define  medical  prac- 
tice. Such  a  definition  was  framed  in  the  draft  of  the 
act  of  1887,  but  stricken  out  because  a  certain  Senator, 
who  died  shortly  afterward,  declared  that  it  would  in- 
clude an  eccentric  healer  who  had  saved  him  from  the 
grave.     The  definition  was  yielded  to  save  the  bill. 

The  Nebraska  Medical  Act  defines  as  a  practitioner 
any  one  "  who  shall  operate  on,  or  profess  to  heal,  or 
prescribe  for,  or  otherwise  treat  any  physical  or  men- 
tal ailment  of  another." 

Under  this  statute  arose,  in  1894,  the  case  of  State 
V.  Bus  well  (40  Neb.  158).  The  defendant,  charged 
with  unlawful  practice  of  medicine,  claimed  to  be  a 
Christian  Scientist,  graduated  from  the  Metaphysical 
College  of  Mrs.  Mary  B.  G.  Eddy,  of  Boston.  De- 
fendant offered  testimony  to  cures  wrought  by  him  in 
cases  of  rheumatism,  rattlesnake  bite,  pneumonia  and 
scarlet  fever— the  last  in  the  case  of  a  child,  four  years 
old.  He  testified  that  in  eighteen  months  he  had 
treated  about  one  hundred  persons,  of  whom  only  two 
had  died.  The  accuracy  of  his  diagnosis  was  not  in 
issue.  He  testified  that  the  text-books  of  the  Christian 
Science  Church  are  the  Bible  and  Mrs.  Eddy's  work, 
"  Science  and  Health."  He  denied  that  in  a  medical 
sense  he  treated  physical  or  mental  ailments,  saying : 
"  I  understand  with  God's  laws,  and  not  mortal  man's." 

'  As  the  book  goes  to  press  it  is  reported  that  the  Ohio  Supreme  Court 
has  approved  this  ruling.  (Alb.  Law  Journal,  Nov.  i8,  1899,  p.  317.) 
The  Illinois  Supreme  Courts  held  otherwise,  (Eastman  v.  People,  71  111. 
App.  236),  but  since  this  article  was  written  the  law  of  that  state  has  been 
amended  to  give  immunity  to  Christian  senators. 


MANSLAUGHTER  AND   THE   LAW.  83 

Questioned  as  to  the  privilege  of  patients  or  parents  to 
call  in  medical  aid,  he  said  :  "  We  believe  that  every 
one  has  a  right  to  express  their  wish,  and  it  is  always 
understood  that  if  they  prefer  some  other  treatment, 
or  some  other  mode,  or  some  one  else  to  aid  them,  it 
is  their  privilege.  We  always  do  that.  It  is  taught 
in  our  text-books.  We  never  give  any  medicine ;  that 
is  entirely  contrary  to  the  teaching  of  Christian 
Science."  And  this  counsel  said:  "The  defendant, 
and  those  of  the  same  faith  with  him,  believe  as  a 
matter  of  conscience  that  the  giving  of  medicine  is  a 
sin ;  that  it  is  placing  faith  in  the  power  of  material 
things,  which  belongs  alone  to  Omnipotence.  To  the 
Christian  Scientist,  it  is  as  much  a  violation  of  the 
laws  of  God  to  take  drugs  for  the  alleviation  of  suffer- 
ing or  the  cure  of  disease,  as  for  a  Methodist  clergy- 
man to  take  the  name  of  his  God  in  vain  to  relieve  his 
overwrought  feelings." 

Being  asked  if  he  took  pay  from  his  patients,  he 
said  :  "  As  a  rule  I  do  not.  We  tell  them  we  leave 
the  question  to  them  and  God.  .  .  .  Jesus  says 
the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  meat,  and  we  expect  that 
those  whom  we  spend  our  lives  for  to  remunerate  us 
for  it.  If  they  are  not  willing  to  part  with  the  sacri- 
fice themselves,  it  is  not  expected  that  those  should 
reap  the  benefit."  ^  Considering  that  defendant  de- 
scribed his  treatment  as  one  of  prayer,  this  intimation 
that  the  answer  to  prayer  would  be  contingent  on 
the  payment  of  the  Scientist's  fee  apparently  seemed 
rather  blasphemous  to  the  court,  who  very  aptly  cited 

>  Cf.  Mrs.  Eddy's  express  teaching  that  patients  who  pay  a  good  fee, 
p.  56, 


84  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

two  cases  from  one  of  the  science's  text-books,  the 
Bible — the  former,  that  of  Simon  the  sorcerer  (re- 
ported in  Acts  viii.  18-23),  to  Avhom  Peter  said,  "  Thy 
money  perish  with  thee,  because  thou  hast  thought 
that  the  gift  of  God  may  be  purchased  with  money  ; " 
the  second,  that  of  Gehazi  (II.  Kings  v.  20-27),  servant 
of  Elisha,  who,  finding  that  his  master  had  gratui- 
tously cured  of  leprosy  Naaman,  the  rich  Sj^rian,  thus 
establishing  a  precedent  for  dispensary  abuses,  re- 
marked, "  as  the  Lord  liveth,  I  Avill  run  after  him,  and 
take  somewhat  of  him,"  and  in  the  end  took  not  only 
a  fee  but  the  disease.  Upon  these  precedents  the 
Nebraska  court  ruled  thus : 

"  The  exercise  of  the  art  of  healing  for  compensa- 
tion, whether  exacted  as  a  fee  or  expected  as  a  gratu- 
ity, cannot  be  classed  as  an  act  of  worship.  JS^either 
is  it  the  performance  of  a  religious  duty,  as  was 
claimed  in  the  District  Court."  They  further  said: 
"  The  object  of  the  statute  is  to  protect  the  afflicted 
from  the  pretensions  of  the  ignorant  and  avaricious, 
and  its  provisions  are  not  limited  to  those  wdio  at- 
tempt to  follow  beaten  paths  and  established  usages." 
This,  it  will  be  noticed,  is  very  different  from  the 
view  of  the  JSTew  York  law  taken  in  the  'New  York 
case  of  Smith  v.  Lane  and  the  Ohio  case  of  Eastman 
V.  State  (supra),  as  well  as  from  the  latest  case  of  the 
kind.  State  v.  Mylod  (40  At.  Y53),  decided  in  Khode 
Island  last  July  upon  these  facts :  Defendant  under- 
took to  cure  one  Hale  of  malaria  and  one  Yaughan  of 
grip,  by  apparently  engaging  in  silent  prayer  and  giv- 
ing them  pamphlets  on  Christian  Science.  He  received 
a  fee  of  one  dollar,  but  gave  no  medicines,  made  no 


MANSLAUGHTER  AND   THE   LAW.  85 

examination  or  diagnosis.     He  testified  that  he  did 
not  attempt   to  cure  disease,  had  no  knowledge  of 
medicine  or  surgery,  and  that  his  only  method  was 
"prayer  and  effort  to  encourage  hopefulness  for  all 
who  come  to  him  in  public  or  private,  and  whatever 
diseases  they  imagine  they  have."     The  court  held, 
citing  Smith  v.  Lane,  that  in  the  absence  of  diagnosis, 
prescription  of  remedies,  or  surgical  methods  there 
was  no  medical  practice.     They   suggested   that  if 
Christian  Science  is  practice  of   medicine,  then  as  a 
school  it  is  entitled  to  recognition  by  the  State  Board, 
and  that  it  would  be  absurd  to  hold,  under  the  Khode 
Island  statute  which   forbids   discrimination  against 
medical  schools,  that  requirements  could  be  prescribed 
which  members  of  a  particular  school  could  not  com- 
ply with,  since  that  would  be  not  to  discriminate  only, 
but  to  prohibit.^     And  the  court  distinguished  the 
cases  of  clairvoyant  physicians  upon  the  ground  that 
therein  the  defendants  had  prescribed  medicine  and 
professed  to  cure  diseases.     There  seems  to  be  fallacy 
in  the  implication  by  the  court  that  any  educational 
requirements  as  a  condition  of  medical  license  are  pro- 
hibitory upon  any  persons  except  those  who  are  un- 
able to  acquire  an  education ;  and  it  is  quite  proper  to 
exclude  such  persons  from  the  ranks  of  physicians. 

The  question  is  full  of  difficulty.  Every  one  admits 
the  power  of  mental  impulses  in  nervous  diseases ;  ad- 
mits nature's  healing  force  that  so  often  cures  without 
any  attendance  at  all ;  and  admits  that  it  would  be 
wrong  to  forbid  all  recourse  to  any  aid.  But  this 
much  being  conceded,  are  we  to  admit  also  that  any 

1  See  the  paper  ««  Christian  Science  before  the  Law."    Page  91. 


86  CHRISTIAN  Science. 

person  should  be  entitled  to  take  charge  of  the  sick 
merely  because  he  pretends  to  act  under  religious  be- 
liefs and  to  abstain  from  using  those  remedies  and 
methods  arrived  at  by  study  and  investigation  ?  Are 
we  to  punish  the  physician  Avho  fails  to  report  yellow 
and  scarlet  fevers,  diphtheria,  and  other  contagious 
disorders,  and  allow  a  person  who  boasts  his  ignorance 
of  medical  and  s^anitary  science  to  treat  and  conceal 
such  cases  ?  The  Christian  Scientist,  in  his  madness 
or  worse,  says  that  there  is  no  disease  but  only  fear  or 
loss  of  relation  to  God,  which  he  in  his  blasphemy 
undertakes  to  restore,  providing  he  is  paid  for  his 
services.  AYhat,  then,  would  liis  death  certificate  be  ? 
AYould  it  be  that  Jones  was  permanently  scared  ? 
AYhat  would  his  report  of  a  contagious  disease  be? 
That  Brown  has  a  panic,  which  is  likely  to  spread  ?  ^ 

In  the  case  of  Keynolds  v.  United  States  (98  U.  S. 
145,  A.  D.  1878),  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  nation  ap- 
plied common  sense  to  the  proposition,  that  the  name 
of  religion  may  be  used  to  cloak  either  lust  or  impos- 
ture. Defendant,  a  member  of  the  so-called  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  being  indicted 
for  bigamy,  pleaded  in  defence  that  the  penalty  im- 
posed by  his  church  upon  its  male  members  who  failed 
to  practice  polygamy  "  when  circumstances  woukl  ad- 
mit "  was  "  damnation  in  the  life  to  come."  No  such 
dreadful  penalty  hangs  over  a  Christian  Scientist  who 
abstains  from  his  lucrative  practices.  The  Supreme 
Court  said  in  Reynolds'  case :     "  Laws  are  made  for 

1  As  we  go  to  press  an  entire  church  of  Christian  Scientists  in  Georgia 
has  been  fined  for  disobedience  of  the  vaccination  law,  from  which  action 
appeal  has  been  taken, 


MANSLAUGHTER  AND   THE  LAW.  87 

the  government  of  actions,  and  while  they  cannot  in- 
terfere with  mere  religious  belief  and  opinions  they 
may  with  practices."  Can  it  be  seriously  contended, 
asked  the  court,  that  a  civilized  nation  may  not  law- 
fully suppress  human  sacrifices  and  the  Indian  custom 
of  suttee,  because  their  votaries  claim  religious  sanc- 
tion therefor  ;  or  polygamy  for  the  same  reason  ?  To 
suffer  such  things,  it  was  answered,  "  would  be  to 
make  the  professed  doctrine  of  religious  belief  superior 
to  the  law  of  the  land  and  in  effect  to  permit  every 
citizen  to  become  a  law  unto  himself."  Government 
could  exist  only  in  name  under  such  circumstances. 
These  wise  words  of  the  court  apply  even  to  honest 
believers,  whom  we  may  respect,  or,  at  least,  sympa- 
thize with,  even  in  their  delusions.  But  if  the  defence 
of  religion  were  allowed  to  the  extent  that  the  eccen- 
trics claim,  the  deadly  sin  of  lying  would  become 
even  more  prevalent  than  it  is,  and  the  dangerous 
classes  Avould  go  over  in  a  body  to  soi-disant  religion. 
There  was  an  English  case  in  1868,  Keg.  v.  AYag- 
staffe  (10  Cox's  Cr.  Cas.  530),  wherein  parents  were 
charged  with  manslaughter  of  a  child  because,  pur- 
suant to  their  religion  as  members  of  the  "  Peculiar 
People,"  they  neglected  to  provide  medical  attend- 
ance for  it,  in  a  case  of  acute  inflammation  of  the 
lungs ;  instead  they  anointed  and  prayed  over  it. 
The  court  charged  that  if  they  had  let  the  child 
starve  for  want  of  food,  the  case  would  have  been 
different ;  for  every  one  recognizes  the  need  of  food. 
But  it  was  not  the  same  when  the  question  was  one 
of  medical  attendance,  for  as  to  that  opinions  differed, 
and  he  read  to  the  jury  from  the  general  Epistle  of 


88  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

St.  James  (v.  14,  15)  those  words  upon  which  the  Ro- 
man Church  rests  the  doctrine  of  extreme  unction, 
and  the  Mormons  and  "  Peculiar  People  "  rest  their 
doctrine  of  healing  the  sick  by  anointing  and  prayer 
only ;  words  which  the  learned  and  sensible  commen- 
tator, Adam  Clark,  forcibly  argues  to  be  an  exhorta- 
tion by  the  apostle  to  use  the  ordinary  Eastern  rem- 
edy, oil,  as  well  as  prayer,  in  treating  the  sick.  The 
jury  acquitted.  Recently  in  a  like  case,  Reg.  v.  Sen- 
ior, they  disagreed.^ 

Beyond  doubt  there  are  very  honest,  intelligent, 
cultivated  persons  who  believe  in  the  efficacy  of  Chris- 
tian Science  and  faith  cure.  Among  some  twenty 
cases  of  death  under  such  treatment,  including  cases 
of  contagious  diseases,  the  writer  has  noted  the  names 
of  such  persons.  It  is  equally  true  that  some  "  intel- 
ligent persons  "  find  no  "  fad  "  too  extraordinary  for 
adoption.  The  writer  knew  of  a  most  shrewd  and 
cultivated  Avoman  Avho  consulted  in  Sing  Sing  prison 
as  to  investment  in  stocks  an  "  astrologer"  convicted 
not  only  of  illegal  medical  practice,  but  of  abhorrent 
crime.  It  is  said  that  where  voudooism  prevails,  cul- 
tivated people  consult  its  priestesses,  after  the  fashion 
of  Xicodemus.  And  when  St.  John  Long,  prince  of 
quacks,   was  convicted   of  manslaughter  at  the  Old 

1  This  case  seems  to  have  turned  upon  the  Act  for  prevention  of  cruelty 
to  children  [(1894)  57  and  58  Victoria]  which  makes  it  misdemeanor 
for  one  in  charge  of  a  child  under  sixteen  years  of  age  willfully  to  neglect  it 
so  as  to  cause  death.  In  imposing  sentence  Mr.  Justice  Wills  said  that  he 
did  not  think  the  punishment  would  have  any  eflect  upon  the  prisoner  or 
his  co-believers,  and  certainly  it  would  not  with  regard  to  the  prisoner, 
because  it  was  the  second  child  in  respect  of  whose  death  he  had  been 
convicted. 

See  Law  Times  and  La7v  Jotirval  g{  Dec.  17,  1898,  also  Law  Journal^ 
Pec.  14,  1898;  and  Medical  Record,  Jan.  21,  1899. 


MANSLAUGHTER   AND   THE   LAW.  89 

Bailey  (4  Car.  and  P.  398)  among  the  twenty-nine  pa- 
tients who  testified  to  the  excellence  of  his  treatment 
were  divers  ''  ladies  of  quality,"  headed  by  the  Mar- 
chioness of  Ormond,  than  whom,  save  royalty,  only  a 
duchess  could  be  better  able  to  form  a  sound  opinion 
in  such  case. 

But  nothing  is  more  false  than  to  say  that  medical 
laws  forbid  the  practice  of  Christian  Science,  faith 
cure,  voudoo,  vitapathy,  or  any  other  "  pathy  "  or 
cult.  Those  laws  provide  only,  at  most,  that  no  per- 
son shall  practice  medicine  who  has  not  pursued  a 
course  in  medical  study.  There  is  nothing  in  them  to 
prevent  any  licentiate  from  practicing  as  he  pleases. 
There  is  nothing  to  prevent  a  masseur  Avithout  license 
from  washing  and  rubbing  a  man,  if  he  confines  him- 
self to  that.  But  there  is  no  reason  why  unqualified 
persons  should  be  allowed  to  pretend  to  cure  disease, 
by  their  pretences  deprive  the  sick  of  the  benefits  of 
science,  and  yet  escape  the  just  consequences  of  their 
imposture.  The  whole  case  of  these  people  who  de- 
sire to  earn  a  livelihood  by  treating  the  sick  without 
any  adequate  preparation  therefor  through  study  and 
investigation  was  summed  up  in  the  grotesque  false- 
hood, circulated  by  way  of  petition  to  the  New  York 
Legislature  of  1885  for  the  repeal  of  the  medical  law, 
which  said : 

"The  law  deprives  from  practicing  in  this  State 
persons  who  are  gifted  with  the  power  of  healing  by 
the  laying  of  hands,  through  the  presence  and  impart- 
ing of  vital  magnetic  force,  and  otherwise.  Some  of 
these  powers  are  natural  to  the  practitioner  and  can- 
not be  imparted  by  the  course  of  study  required  by 


90  CHRISTIAIf   SCIENCE. 

medical  colleges."  Could  anything  be  more  absurd  ? 
The  natural  power  to  heal  disease  impaired  by  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge  concerning  disease !  And 
yet  there  were  those  prepared  to  believe  even  that,  so 
true  is  it  to-day,  as  of  old,  that  the  wonderful  is  the 
unknown  and  the  credible  that  which  is  impossible  of 
belief. 

It  may  be  a  question  of  policy  whether  Christian 
Scientists  should  be  prosecuted ;  whether  cheap  mar- 
tyrdom might  not  strengthen  them.  But  there  seems 
no  good  reason,  as  matter  of  law,  Avhy  they  should 
not  be  punished  for  the  evil  they  actually  do,  prohib- 
ited, if  the  policy  seem  wise,  from  treating  the  sick 
without  adequate  preparation  by  study  of  medical 
science,  and  convicted  of  manslaughter  if  death  re- 
sults from  interference. 


TV 

CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE   BEFORE   THE   LAW  ^ 

About  a  hundred  years  ago  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  when  as  now  men  were  proud  and 
boastful  of  their  enlightened  times,  when  from  mis- 
rule and  free  thought,  the  Age  of  Keason  and  the  red 
harvest  of  Dr.  Guillotin  were  about  to  come  into 
being,  a  man  passed  through  Europe,  captivating  the 
fancy  of  the  great  Catherine  and  the  small  Louis,  the 
reason  of  courtiers,  the  adoration  of  the  mob.  Bead- 
ing of  Cagliostro,  the  mountebank,  bedizened  like  a 
stage  wizard,  Avonderfully  curing  the  sick,  revealing 
the  past,  foretelling  the  future  and  protected  by  royal 
power  from  the  prosecutions  that  the  faculty  and  men 
learned  in  the  science  of  the  day  were  eager  to  direct 
against  him,  we  are  disposed  from  the  height  of  our 
greater  attainments  to  smile  at  what  we  consider  the 
gullibility  of  the  last  Jin  cle  siede.  But  charlatan,  im- 
postor and  robber  as  he  was,  the  vogue  of  Cagliostro, 
or  Balsamo,  is  understandable.  Beside  his  natural 
shrewdness  he  had,  at  least,  the  education  that  comes 
to  the  observant  from  travel  and  association  with  the 
intelligent,  and  seems  to  have  possessed  as  well,  a  share 
of  the  medical  learning  of  the  time.  JN'ot  only  were 
his  cures  gratuitous  save  when  the  rich  rewarded  him 

1  Read  by  request  of  the  Medical  Society  of  this  County  of  Westchester, 
New  York,  at  its  annual  meeting  Se]-)tember  19th,  1899. 

91 


92  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

richly,  but  he  distributed  largesse  among  the  crowd 
with  lavish  hand.  Presumptuous  as  his  assumption 
of  superhuman  knowledge  and  skill  was,  it  Avas  still 
only  the  claim  of  the  astrologer,  the  pretended  adept 
in  Eastern  lore,  the  master  of  Masonic  mysteries. 
He  did  not  assume  to  be  in  the  secret  councils  of  the 
most  High,  to  supplement  the  work  of  Christ  or  to 
found  a  religious  cult.  At  the  end  of  our  wonder- 
ful century  of  material  progress  that  has  covered  the 
world  with  iron  roads  for  the  steam  monster  and  al- 
ready harnessed  his  swifter  successor,  the  lightning ; 
that  has  enabled  us  to  speak  in  a  moment  with  the 
antipodes  and  in  medicine  and  surgery  has  wrought 
wonders  undreamed  of  in  Cagliostro's  day,  lengthen- 
ing the  average  span  of  life,  dispelling  pain  from  the 
chamber  where  the  knife  works  calmly,  in  vital  re- 
gions, undisturbed  by  the  patient's  agony,  finding  with 
microscopic  eye  the  causes  of  sickness,  banishing,  Avith 
antiseptic  magic,  putrifying  germs  that  so  lately  de- 
feated the  surgeon's  skill,  and  checking  once  dreaded 
plagues  by  wise  sanitation  ; — at  the  end  of  this  cen- 
tury of  ours,  surpassing  all  others  in  the  progress  of 
medical  science  and  art,  we  have  a  more  puzzling 
phenomenon.  A  sickly  New  England  woman,  twice 
widowed,  once  divorced  and  so  without  the  vestal 
sanctity  usually  claimed  by  those  of  her  sex  who  as- 
pire to  lead  religious  thought,  un travelled,  unlearned, 
and  uncultivated,  even  in  the  use  of  the  mother  tongue, 
has  been  able  to  impose  upon  many  persons  at  home 
and  abroad,  not  only  a  flatulent,  incoherent  theory  of 
religion  and  metaphysics,  which,  as  religion  and  meta- 
physics, would  concern  us  little,  but  also  a  system  of 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE   BEFORE   THE   LAW.  93 

treating,  or  rather  neglecting,  the  sick,  that,  founded 
upon  bold  denial  of  obvious  facts,  and  of  conclusions, 
harvested  by  the  wise  and  learned  from  ages  of  obser- 
vation, fattens  the  greedy  coffers  of  herself  and  her 
disciples,  who  follow  it  as  a  business,  while  leading 
down  to  dusty  death  many  credulous  adults  and  de- 
fenceless children.  What  is  especially  hard  to  under- 
stand is  that  among  Mrs.  Eddy's  honest  followers  are 
persons  of  literary  cultivation,  Avho,  we  should  sup- 
pose, might  guage  at  once  her  ignorance  and  preten- 
tiousness by  the  ungrammatical  ill-rhymed  doggerel 
which  she  puts  forth  as  poetry ;  men  of  the  law  who, 
presumably,  should  be  able  to  detect  the  contradiction 
and  lack  of  logical  coherence  in  her  soi-disant  system ; 
pious  and  refined  souls,  whom  we  would  expect  to  find 
disgusted  with  the  blasphemy  and  vulgarity  of  much 
that  she  has  written.  Pilgrimages  are  made  to  her 
Concord  home.  Churches  are  built  in  which  her  book 
of  ineffable  nonsense  is  solemnly  read  and  her  jargon, 
interpolated  into  the  Lord's  prayer,  is  recited.  Men 
of  judicial  position  have  introduced  her  apostles  to 
large  audiences,  and  legislators  seriously  inclined  to 
their  tales  of  wonder.  But  although  her  followers 
are  many,  being  estimated  by  her  disciples  between 
the  rather  wide  limits  of  60,000  and  600,000,  it  is 
comforting  to  reflect  that  those  not  under  her  spell 
are  numbered  by  the  millions.  And  although  any 
delusion  that  controls  the  minds  and  actions  of  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  community  to  its  possible  detri- 
ment is  a  proper  subject  for  careful  examination,  we 
should  not  fall  into  the  error  of  giving  factitious  im- 
portance to  what  is  intrinsically  ridiculous,  by  over- 


94  CHKISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

serious  treatment  of  it.  Examples  of  this  mistaken 
course  are  not  far  to  seek.  It  is  probably  true  tliat  if 
the  ultra  metaphysical  theories  of  Hahneman,  which 
Mrs.  Eddy  accepted  before  launching  her  own  non- 
sense, had  been  consistently  laughed  at,  homeopathy 
as  a  system  would  not  now  exist.  How  many  intel- 
ligent homeopathists  of  our  day  believe  in  the  efficacy 
of  the  thirtieth,— not  to  mention  the  200th— potency 
of  even  the  powerful  drugs,  leaving  out  of  considera- 
tion the  inert  substances  that  Hahnemanites  have 
proposed  as  curatives,  dilutions  expressed  in  figures 
that  the  human  mind  is  incapable  of  grasping  ?  ^Yho 
now  believes  that  the  power  of  these  infinite  dilutions 
can  be  increased  or  diminished  by  the  number  and 
direct-ion  of  the  shakes  given  to  the  vial  containing 
them  ?  In  thus  suggesting  that  strict  liahnemanism 
is  a  delusion  of  the  past,  I  but  echo  gentlemen  of  the 
homeopathic  school  for  whose  ability  and  skill  I  have 
great  respect.  Turn  to  the  files  of  New  York  City 
journals  ^  when  some  years  ago  the  homeopathic  pro- 
fession in  that  city  was  agitated  over  the  ever  vital 
question  of  patronage,  and  you  will  find  one  of  its 
leaders,  if  not  the  leader,  reported  as  saying,  that 
since  Dr.  Bayard's  death  there  had  not  been  one 
practitioner  of  true  liahnemanism  in  that  great  city ; 
while  his  opponent,  at  the  head  of  the  professedly 
strict  sect  when  taunted  with  the  use  in  his  practice 
of  morphine,  antipyrine,  quinine  and  like  drugs  in 
large  doses,  retorted  that  he  used  them  only  as  pal- 
liatives, not  as  curatives,  as  forerunners  of  the  homeo- 

iSee  New  York  Times,  Sun,  IVorld,  Dec.  12;  Dec.  13,  20,  1889;  Jan. 
10,  14  J  Feb.  23;  Herald,  Feb.  24,  1890,  and  about  those  dates. 


CHRISTIAN-   SCIENCE   BEFORE   THE   LAW.  95 

pathio  remedies  by  which  alone  he  effected  his  cures. 
Again  when  in  1887  it  was  my  duty  to  urge  before 
the  New  York  Legislature  the  medical  act  of  that 
year,  the  passage  of  which  it  is  but  just  to  say  was 
largely  aided  by  the  hearty  cooperation  of  the  Homeo- 
pathic Society,  one  gentleman  of  that  body  whose 
friendship  and  confidence  it  was  my  pleasure  and 
privilege  to  gain,  said  to  me,  if  you  people,— mean- 
ing the  regular  school  I  represented,— had  good  sense, 
you  could  destroy  us.  If  you  would  only  establish 
chairs  in  your  colleges  to  teach  what  homeopathy  is, 
or  even  do  what  was  lately  done  at  Harvard,  let 
students  formulate  questions  to  be  answered  by  a 
homeopath,  there  would  be  no  place  for  our  colleges ; 
but  until  you  admit  that  we  have  done  something  for 
medicine,  and  so  long  as  you  denounce  us,  we  will 
oppose  you. 

These  things  need  to  be  said  because  they  bear  upon 
the  policy  of  legislation ;  but  this  is  neither  the  time 
nor  the  place  to  discuss  that  thesis  from  its  strictly  med- 
ical standpoint ;  nor  am  I  the  person  to  espouse  either 
side  of  such  a  discussion ;  and  certainly  neither  you 
nor  I  are  here  to  deal  intemperately  or  flippantly  Avith 
any  honest  belief  or  to  belittle  what  good  may  lie  in 
any  theory  or  system,  even  Christian  science, — how- 
ever nonsensical  some  of  its  tenets  may  seem  to  us,— 
nor  yet  to  be  so  foolish  or  discourteous  as  to  deny  the 
general  intelligence  and  mental  vigor  of  any  one 
merely  because  he  may  accept  some  proposition  that 
to  us  seems  bizarre  and  fantastic.  Had  I  the  honor 
and  privilege  of  being  a  physician— as  fortunately  for 
my  possible  patients,  perhaps,  I  have  not,— it  seems  to 


96  CHEISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

me  that,  so  far  as  time  and  occasion  served,  I  should 
examine  carefully  every  new  thing  that  promised  well 
for  poor  humanity  and  be  patient  and  long-suffering 
Avith  even  the  erratic  thinker,  if  satisfied  that  he  was 
honestly  striving  to  benefit  his  fellow-man,  and  not 
merely  to  fill  his  purse  by  obtruding  recklessly,  and 
with  conscious  ignorance,  where  only  the  learned 
should  be  allowed.  That  I  apprehend  to  be  the  stand- 
point of  the  true  physician,  who  above  other  men  per- 
haps, should  prove  all  things,  and  hold  fast  that  which 
is  true. 

Now  some  of  you  may  be  thinking  what  has  all  this 
to  do  with  Christian  science  before  the  law  ?  The  an- 
swer is  simple :  in  discussing  actual  law,  or  proposed 
legislation  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  aims  of 
the  law  are  above  all  things  practical.  It  has  no 
function  to  operate  upon  folly  as  folly ;  and,  pro- 
verbially, it  does  not  concern  itself  with  trifles.  It  is 
necessarily  tolerant  of  widely  divergent  ideas  and  of 
much  that  to  many  seems  wrong.  Keligious  beliefs, 
in  so  far  as  they  are  merely  beliefs  not  reduced  to 
criminal  or  dangerous  practices,  are  not  proper  objects 
of  its  control, — at  least  not  in  our  country.  We  are 
free,  with  a  constitutional  right  of  freedom,  to  work 
out  our  own  salvation  without  legislative  aid.  Over- 
legislation  to  which,  of  late,  there  is  an  unfortunate 
tendency,  is  itself,  in  our  theory  of  government,  a  dis- 
tinct evil,  a  disease  of  the  body  politic.  Legislative 
regulation  of  the  minor  actions  of  men,  their  beliefs, 
their  merely  ethical  conduct  is  intolerable.  To  legis- 
late for  the  benefit  of  any  scientific  theory  to  the  det- 
riment  of   another  would  be,  save  perhaps  in  very 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE   BEFORE   THE   LAW.  97 

exceptional  circumstances,  a  great  wrong,  unwise  and 
most  harmful  to  the  cause  of  true  science  and  the  ad- 
vancement of  human  knowledge.  A  statute  for  ex- 
ample ordaining  that  no  person  should  worship  except 
according  to  the  Eoman  Catholic  or  Presbyterian 
scheme,  or  treat  the  sick  except  secumdiim  artem, 
whether  by  regular  homeopathic  or  any  other  rule, 
would  be  an  abomination,  unwise  and,  God  be  thanked, 
unconstitutional. 

Because  no  well  informed  person  disputes  these 
truisms,  charlatanism,  religious  and  medical,  seeks  to 
make  of  them  its  refuge  and  strong  bulwark.  The 
Mormon  for  his  polygamy,  the  Oneida  Communist  for 
his  promiscuity,  the  Christian  Scientist  for  his  slaughter 
of  credulous  adults  and  helpless  babes,  alike  claims 
protection  from  the  law  upon  a  theory  that  the  free 
right  to  worship  according  to  conscience  implies  the 
right  to  commit  any  act  under  the  pretext  of  religion 
which  an  evil  or  erratic  mind  may  inspire.  The  osteo- 
path, the  venopath,  the  vitapath,  the  Kickapoo  In- 
dians and  all  the  rabble  of  ignorant  quacks,  in  like 
fashion,  seek  exemption  of  their  impostures  from  legal 
regulation  in  the  contention,  that  because  the  last 
word  has  not  been  uttered  in  medical  science,  it  is 
therefore  class  legislation  to  enact  any  law  prohibiting 
the  ignorant  to  assume,  as  a  business,  the  entire  charge 
and  cure,  of  the  sick.  At  first  blush  this  superficial 
argument  is  plausible  and  influences  many.  When 
^sop's  ass  masqueraded  under  the  lion's  skin,  all  the 
other  animals,  intelligent  man  included,  stood  for 
awhile  in  awe  of  him ;  but  when  his  tuneful  note  vi- 
brated on  the  air,  they  tore  off  his  disguise,  and  dis- 


98  CIIKISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

closed  him  once  more  an  obvious  ass.  In  the  long 
run  the  disguise  must  fall  from  pseudo — religious  and 
medical  imposture.  Christian  Science  will  not  be  an 
exception  to  the  rule.  Its  mask  of  religion  is  very 
thin  but  the  animal  below  it  is  rather  the  cunning 
fox  than  the  honest  useful  ass.  In  tearing  off  its  dis- 
guise the  law  may  play  a  part ;  but  the  unmasking 
will  best  be  done  by  turning  on  the  light  and  showing 
what  an  amusing  misfit  the  garb  of  religion  is,  and 
what  a  greedy  unscrupulous  fox  it  covers. 

The  questions  then  present  themselves  whether  Chris- 
tian Science  is  such  a  phase  of  genuine  religious  belief, 
or  so  trifling  in  its  evil  results  that  its  daily  practices 
should  be  unrestrained  by  law  ;  and  if  not,  whether 
the  present  condition  of  the  law  is  adequate  to  deal 
with  those  practices  or  whether  further  legislation  is 
necessary. 

Others  as  well  as  myself,  have  dealt  so  fully  else- 
where with  this  delusion  that  these  questions  may  be 
here  answered  in  general  terms  without  citation  of 
specific  authority.  We  may  consider  general  princi- 
ples rather  than  particular  cases. 

That  many  intelligent  persons  accept  Mrs.  Eddy's 
lucubrations  as  a  religious  and  therapeutic  system,  has 
been  already  admitted  to  be  a  puzzling  fact,  its  most 
probable  explanation  being  that  such  persons  accept 
as  true,  without  investigation,  all  the  marvellous  tales 
of  the  Eddyites  or  generalize  from  particular  cases 
known  to  themselves  Avithout  reading  the  farrago  of 
nonsense  constituting  the  so-called  system,  and  with- 
out time  or  inclination,  even  if  they  have  ability,  to 
investigate  in  true  scientific  spirit  the  causes  of  what 


CHRISTIAN   SCIET^CE   BEFORE   THE   LAW.  99 

arouses  their  astonishment.  Having  examined  with 
care  her  fundamental  books,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  she  has  contributed  to  religious  thought,  meta- 
physical speculation  or  therapeutical  knowledge,  or  yet 
what  she  says  that  is  new.  Even  her  doctrine  that 
cleanliness  and  hygienic  life  are  detrimental,  has  long 
been  acted  upon  by  the  dirty  fakirs  of  the  Orient,  and 
the  great  unwashed  of  Christendom.  Her  magnum- 
opus  "  Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures," 
that  costly  and  most  lucrative  text- book  of  innumera- 
ble editions,  pretends,  as  its  name  indicates,  to  be 
founded  upon  and  to  interpret  the  Bible,  but  not  to  be 
a  new  evangel.  Mrs.  Eddy's  modest  pretence  is  that 
while  the  Bible  is  God's  word,  its,  and  therefore  his, 
meaning,  utterly  escaped  the  apprehension  both  of  the 
simple,  and  the  learned,  during  the  long  ages,  only  to 
be  revealed  to  her  in  the  year  of  grace,  1866.  Pre- 
sumably it  is  the  version  of  King  James  that  she  in- 
terprets, for  she  knows  no  Hebrew,^  no  Greek,  no 
Latin  and  precious  little  English.  She  is  not  in  the 
babe  or  suckling  class,  from  which,  we  are  told,  wis- 
dom sometimes  emanates  to  confound  the  wise,  but  is 
said  to  be  a  mature  dame  of  about  eighty,  having 
nearly  completed  her  first  half  century  when  it  pleased 
God,  in  his  mysterious  providence,  to  vouchsafe  to  her 
that  key  to  his  meaning  which  he  had  theretofore 
denied  to  saints  and  scholars.  As  nearly  as  one  can 
spell  it  out,  this  key,  which,  for  purposes  of  lucre,  Mrs. 
Eddy  has  copyrighted,  is  the  stale  theory,  as  old  as 
philosophic  speculation,  familiar  to  Sophomores  but 
new  to  her,  that  everything  is  mind.     Her  corollary 

>  Jier  brother  Albert  however  studied  Hebrew  in  vacations.    See  p.  42, 


100  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

is  that  health  is  right  thought,  and  disease,  sickness 
and  every  other  evil  only  wrong  thought.  Upon  this 
theme,  she  rings  her  changes ;  and  it  is  safe  to  say, 
that  had  she  confined  herself  to  this  peculiar  exposi- 
tion of  Scripture,  her  congregations  would  have  been 
small,  and  she  Avould  have  remained  an  obscure  eccen- 
tric New  England  woman,  confessedly  feeble  in  health 
and  poor  in  pocket.  Her  trifling  interpretation  of 
Scripture  would  no  more  have  been  suggested  as  mat- 
ter for  legal  control,  than  the  wit  and  satire  of  Colonel 
Ingersoll  or  the  broad  learning  of  Dr.  Briggs.  Her 
religious  views  would  concern  us  no  more  than  those 
of  the  forgotten  Matthias,  John  of  Leyden,  or  Noyes, 
and  far  less  than  the  still  somewhat  prevalent  doc- 
trines of  Joseph  Smith  and  Brigham  Young. 

But  it  seems  that  feeble  health  led  the  lady  to 
dabble  in  medical  theories,  to  accept  at  one  time  the 
views  of  Hahneman  and  later  the  doctrine  of  animal 
magnetism  as  expounded  by  one  P.  P.  Quimby,  whose 
patient  she  was  in  his  life,  whose  memory  after  death 
she  apparently  execrates  with  all  the  hate  of  a  jealous, 
envious,  covetous  woman.  It  seems  too,  that  in  a 
small  way,  she  practiced  homeopathy  until  becoming 
convinced  that  there  was  no  medicinal  virtue  in  its 
high  potencies,  and  finding  that  their  administration 
was  followed,  nevertheless,  by  cures,  she  arrived  at 
her  great  discovery  that  health  is  Mind  in  capitals, 
and  disease,  mortal  mind  in  small  letters  ;  for  not  the 
least  amusing  part  of  her  book  is  its  use  of  different 
fonts  of  type  to  differentiate  Truth  from  error, 
Health,  or  Ease,  from  Dis-ease ;  a  play  of  words  that 
appeals  strongly  to  her.     Here,  of  course,  is  the  grain' 


CHKISTIAN   SCIENCE   BEFORE   THE   LAW.        101 

of  truth  in  her  system.  Perceiving  that  suggestion 
plays  an  important  part  in  the  cure  of  certain  dis- 
eases, being  probably  ignorant  or  possibly  advised 
that  this  was  no  new  thing,  and,  generalizing  from 
the  particular  as  the  rash,  the  ignorant  and  the  im- 
postor all  do,  she  concluded  and  announced  that  be- 
cause striking  cures  often  follow  an  access  of  faith  or 
other  strong  mental  excitation,  therefore  all  diseases 
and  bodily  injuries  are  merely  false  beliefs  to  be 
treated  by  mental  processes,  and  that  all  drugs,  ma- 
terial remedies  and  even  hygienic  measures  are  not 
only  ineffectual,  but  harmful.  Her  system  of  thera- 
peutics, then,  amounts  to  this  :  disease,  sickness,  bodily 
injury  of  any  kind  do  not  exist  except  as  mistaken  be- 
liefs to  be  removed  by  argument  with  them,  which 
argument  is  to  be  addressed  to  the  disease  silently, 
lest,  haply,  the  patient  overhearing  the  discussion  be 
confirmed  in  his  error.  Diagnosis,  as  physicians  and 
ordinary  laymen  understand  the  term,  does  not  exist 
in  her  scheme.  Under  this  principle  it  is  quite  unnec- 
essary for  the  healer  to  come  in  contact  with  the  pa- 
tient. The  one  may  be  in  Hong  Kong,  the  other  in 
Terra  del  Fuego.  The  effect  will  be  just  as  great  as 
if  they  were  in  conjunction.  Now  while  as  a  theory, 
this  arrant  nonsense  is  merely  comical,  a  moment's  re- 
flection shows  that  its  practice  is  obviously  dangerous 
in  a  high  degree,  not  only  to  the  particular  victim  but 
to  the  community  at  large.  That  its  promulgator  is 
either  dishonest  in  advancing  it  or  doubtful  of  its  full 
efficacy,  seems  apparent  from  her  advice  to  disciples 
to  ''  leave  the  adjustment  of  broken  bones  and  dislo- 
cations to  the  fingers  of  surgeons,"  "until  the  ad- 


102  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

vancing  age  admits  the  efficacy  and  supremacy  of 
Mind,"  a  precept  that  suggests  her  conviction  of  the 
truth  of  what  worthy  Quarles  quaintly  said  :  "  Phy- 
sicians of  all  men,  are  most  happy  ;  w^iatever  good 
success  soever,  they  have,  the  world  proclaimeth  ;  and 
what  faults  they  commit,  the  earth  covereth."  Is  not 
this  advice  of  hers  the  cunning  of  the  fox  rather  than 
a  delusion  of  the  other  animal  ?  Is  it  not  manifestly 
a  warning  that  while  it  is  comparatively  safe  for  her 
ignorant  followers  to  treat  the  sick  for  rich  reward, 
under  the  guise  of  religious  aid,  in  cases  of  ordinary 
ailments,  yet  surgery  is  to  be  shunned  by  them,  only 
because  in  that  department  of  medicine  malpractice 
is  more  demonstrable  to  a  lay  jury  than  in  physic, 
w^here  the  healing  force  of  nature  may  be  relied  upon 
to  give  the  Christianly  scientific  practitioner  success 
in  many  cases,  while  his  failures  are  more  likely  to 
escape  detection. 

It  would  seem  to  be  perfectly  clear  from  this  sum- 
mary of  her  doctrine — which  is  I  believe  and  certainly 
hope,  entirely  fair,  and  not  travesty — travesty  indeed, 
being  impossible — that  while  from  the  standpoint  of 
religion  and  philosophy,  Mrs.  Eddy's  so-called  science 
is  beneath  contempt,  a  banality  Avith  which  the  law 
should  not  concern  itself ;  it  is  on  the  other  hand 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  public  health,  a  serious  mat- 
ter, since  it  puts  in  peril  not  only  credulous  adults 
and  their  innocent  children,  but  in  cases  of  contagious 
and  infectious  diseases,  great  numbers  of  persons  who 
repudiate  its  nonsense,  thus  menacing  the  whole  com- 
munity. Let  us  concede,  for  argument  sake,  what  the 
Eddj^ites  vehemently  declare,  that  if  a  man  be  willing 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE   BEFORE   THE   LAAV.        103 

to  subject  himself  to  the  treatment  of  Christian 
Science  for  any  sickness,  even  smallpox,  he  should  be 
allowed  to  do  so  ;  are  we  also  to  concede  that  he 
should  be  allowed  to  subject  his  infant  children  af- 
flicted with  that  malady  or  scarlet  fever,  or  malignant 
diphtheria  to  the  same  and  no  other  treatment  ?  Is 
he  to  be  suffered  to  sacrifice  his  own  offspring  and 
also  spread  contagion?  Common  sense  affords  the 
answer. 

What  is  dangerous  and  pestilential  in  Christian 
Science  is  its  absolute  denial  in  specific  terms  that  dis- 
ease or  bodily  injury  exists  except  as  a  perverted 
phase  of  thought ;  its  denial  that  any  material  remedy 
appliances  or  hygienic  measures  are  of  any  use  in  the 
treatment  of  the  sick,  and  its  positive  assertion  that 
the  whole  materia  medica  is  harmful.  A  consistent 
Christian  Scientist  must  logically  be  opposed  to  vacci- 
nation, to  antiseptic  methods,  to  bandages,  to  cauter- 
ies, to  prophylactics,  to  anaesthetics — in  short,  to  every 
approved  method  of  relieving  pain,  curing  the  sick 
and  protecting  the  public  from  contagion  or  infection. 
Let  us  concede  to  the  power  of  suggestion  all  that  is 
established  and  far  more.  Let  us  admit  for  the  argu- 
ment's sake,  if  not  in  fact,  that  even  cancer  may  be 
cured,  by  convincing  the  patient  that  there  is  no  such 
disease  and  that  he  is  not  afflicted  with  it ;  still  we 
are  not  up  with  Mrs.  Eddy.  For  that  astounding 
person  distinctly  says  that  the  healer  must  not  name 
the  disease,  but  must  argue  with  it  mentally ;  that  her 
methods  are  as  efficacious  for  infants,  in  whose  minds 
such  suggestion  cannot  be  planted,  as  for  adults ;  that 
oceans  may  roll  between  healer  and  patient  cutting 


104  CHKISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

off  communication  and  therefore  suggestion  b}^  any 
means  that  human  science  as  yet  admits  to  be  pos- 
sible. Thus  she  seems  to  eliminate  from  her  theory 
the  only  grain  of  truth  we  have  found  in  it  and  deny 
the  very  cause  that  produces  what  results  follow  its 
application  in  the  restoration  of  the  sick  to  the 
normal. 

I  cannot  better  illustrate  in  passing  the  disingenu- 
ousness  of  the  professional  healer,  the  hypersensitive- 
ness  of  the  healed  and  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
investigating  reported  marvellous  cures  than  by  t^vo 
examples  in  my  recent  experience.     Mr.  Carol  Norton 
is  one  of  the  Board  of  Lecturers  of  the  First  Church 
of   Christ    Scientist,   "the  mother  church"  so-called. 
He    delivers   with    some   variations,    a    copyrighted 
lecture,  offering  to  give  medical  proof  of  the  cure  of 
cancer,  locomotor  ataxia  and  other  obstinate  maladies. 
I  wrote  some  time  ago  for  such  proofs  and  also  asked 
specifically  if  Mr.  Norton  himself  would  venture  to 
substitute  Christian  Science  for  medical  aid  in  the  case 
of   a   fractured   skull,   a  severed  artery  or   confluent 
smallpox.     After   some  correspondence  he  produced 
so-called  medical  proof,  consisting  of  brief  statements 
of  conclusion,  signed  by  Christian   Scientists  but  of 
little  or  no  evidential  value  from  either  a  medical  or 
legal  standpoint ;  not  differing  in  kind  from  the  cer- 
tificates with  which  nostrum  venders  have  made  us 
familiar.     To  my  questions  he  replied  that  he  "  pre- 
ferred to  shelve  them."     Having  written  an  account 
of  this  effort  at  investigation  to  the  New  York  Siin,^ 
a  gentleman  wrote  in  reference  to  it,  asking  if  I  had 

1  See  these  letters  in  the  appendix,  pps.  165-182;  also  pps.  64,  65,  113. 


christia:n"  science  before  the  law.      105 

seriously  examined  Christian  Science  and  saying,  in 
j^erfectiy  good  faith,  as  I  believe,  that  while  he  was 
ignorant  of  its  methods,  he  felt  bound  to  testify  to  its 
marvellous  results  in  his  own  family  upon  a  patient 
"  turned  out  to  die  "  by  a  great  hospital,  and  given  up 
by  three  physicians,  whom  he  named,  two  being  well- 
known  and  one  eminent.  He  expressed  a  desire  to 
put  the  facts  before  me.  I  replied  courteously,  as  I 
thought,  expressing  entire  readiness  to  believe  in  the 
existence  of  the  disease  and  its  cure,  under  the  treat- 
ment of  Christian  Science,  but  saying  with  perfect 
frankness,  inasmuch  as  my  correspondent  professed 
ignorance  of  that  cult's  methods,  that  I  should  be  dis- 
posed to  explain  the  cure  by  suggestion  and  not  by 
the  theories  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  which  it  seemed  to  me  im- 
possible for  a  sane  mind  to  accept ;  and  I  also  asked 
that  he  would  let  me  know  all  the  facts.  This  gentle- 
man was,  I  regret  to  say,  so  offended  at  my  unfortu- 
nate remark,  that  it  did  not  seem  to  me  any  sane  mind 
could  accept  those  theories  of  which  he  professed 
to  be  ignorant,  that  he  did  not  give  me  the  informa- 
tion which  he  had  volunteered.  And  it  appeared  that 
of  the  physicians  he  named,  the  eminent  specialist  had 
been  consulted  only  once  and  then  had  incurred  odium 
by  charging  an  office  fee  of  $10,  while  the  other  more 
prominent  physician  told  me  that  he  knew  of  no  such 
person  as  the  i>atient,  although  his  brother  might  per- 
haps have  a  patient  of  that  name ;  to  my  further  in- 
quiries I  have  had  no  answer.^ 

I  Since  this  paper  was  read  I  have  had  accurate  information  from  the 
attending  physicians  showing  my  correspondent  to  have  been  absolutely 
misinformed  in  the  premises,  however  honest  in  belief. 


106  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

We  are  now  at  a  point  where  we  may  consider 
whether  the  law,  as  it  is,  can  deal  adequately  with  the 
practices  of  Eddyism  or  whether  further  legislation  is 
desirable  in  the  premises. 

We  have  a  statute  in  this  state  making  it  a  misde- 
meanor for  any  one  not  a  licensed  physician  to  prac- 
tice medicine.  There  are  also  requirements  as  to  re- 
porting contagious  diseases,  deaths,  etc.,  with  all  of 
which  you  are  familiar.  Under  the  medical  law,  the 
only  puzzling  question  is,  in  a  given  case,  whether  the 
acts  proved  constitute  practice  of  medicine.  A  clever 
saying  I  have  had  occasion  to  quote  before,  in  this 
connection  is,  that  it  is  one  thing  to  renounce  the 
devil  and  all  his  works,  and  a  very  different  and  more 
difficult  matter  to  recognize  the  devil  and  his  works 
when  you  encounter  them.  No  effort  has  been  made, 
so  far  as  I  know  to  punish  in  our  state's  courts  the 
practice  of  Christian  Science  as  an  offence  under  the 
Public  Health  Law,  which  contains  no  definition  of 
medical  practice  as  do  the  statutes  of  some  other 
states.  It  is  true  that  the  daily  press  reported  re- 
cently the  conviction  of  a  Christian  Scientist  in 
Brooklyn.  The  defendant  in  that  case,  however,  was 
not  an  Eddyite  but  some  other  species  of  divine  or 
mental  healer,  and  moreover,  had  administered  ma- 
terial remedies,  upon  which  fact  a  conviction  was  pro- 
cured.^ On  the  other  hand  in  a  civil  case.  Smith  v. 
Lane,  our  Supreme  Court  held,  some  years  ago,  that  a 
masseur  was  not  a  practitioner  of  medicine  and  made 
the  test  of  such  practice  to  consist  in  the  prescription 

1  This  was  the  case  in  which  tlie  photograph  fornnng  the  frontispiece 
was  taken.  See  preface.  About  the  time  this  paper  was  read  a  similar 
case  decided  in  like  manner  was  reported  in  Chicago. — People  v.  Bratseh, 
Chic.  Law  Journal,  Sept.  15,  1899,  Vol.  IV.,  N.  O.  397. 


CHRISTIAIN*   SCIENCE   BEFOUE   THE   LAW.        l07 

or  administration  of  drugs  or  remedies  or  the  use  of 
instruments.  This  is  manifestly  an  imperfect  defini- 
tion ;  and  it  would  have  been  better  perhaps,  had  the 
court  confined  itself  to  deciding  that  the  facts  proven 
in  the  particular  case,  did  not  constitute  such  practice, 
without  essaying  to  make  a  general  definition,  which 
is  a  more  difficult  task  than  on  its  face  it  appears  to 
be.  In  the  matter  of  business  fraud  courts  have  been 
wiser  and  contented  themselves  in  each  case  with  de- 
ciding whether  the  proven  facts  constitute  a  fraud, 
avoiding  a  general  definition  of  fraud  itself ;  with  full 
knowledge  that  to  define  that  protean  malfeasance 
w^ould  only  make  easy  the  way  of  the  transgressor. 
So,  then,  although  the  point  has  not  been  specifically 
decided  in  a  criminal  action  under  the  medical  law  it 
is  probable  that  in  such  a  prosecution  our  courts  would 
hold  that  the  attempt  to  treat  the  sick  by  mental  or 
pseudo-religious  methods  alone  does  not  constitute  the 
practice  of  medicine.  In  Rhode  Island  and  Ohio,  the 
case  of  Smith  v.  Lane  has  been  followed.  In  Ne- 
braska and  Illinois,  it  has  been  repudiated  as  incon- 
sistent with  the  statutes  of  those  states,  but  under  the 
new  medical  law  of  Illinois,  it  would  seem  that  Chris- 
tian Scientists  have  been  influential  enough  to  secure 
exemption  for  their  business. 

We  may  assert  then,  that  Eddyism  is  not  punishable 
under  the  medical  law-  of  this  state  unless  the  defini- 
tion of  Smith  V.  Lane  shall  be  repudiated. 

So  far  as  the  reporting  of  contagious  diseases,  in- 
flamed eyes  of  babies,  births  and  deaths  by  medical 
attendants  in  charge,  the  law  is  as  you  know  substan- 
tially as  follows  : 


108  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

There  are  first  the  general  laws  authorizing  the 
creation  of  local  boards  of  health  with  certain 
powers,  among  them  that  of  making  and  enforcing 
proper  ordinances,  and  providing  a  penalty  for  dis- 
obedience. 

§  397  of  the  Penal  Code  provides  that  a  fine  not 
exceeding  S2,000  or  imprisonment  not  exceeding  one 
year  or  both  may  be  inflicted  upon  any  one  violating 
a  provision  of  the  health  law  not  otherwise  punished, 
or  violating  or  refusing  or  omitting  to  obey,  a  lawful 
order  or  regulation  of  such  a  board. 

§  288  of  that  code  provides  for  the  reporting  of 
inflamed  eyes  of  an  infant  within  the  age  of  two 
weeks  by  the  medical  attendant,  midwife  or  person 
having  the  child  in  charge.  It  also  requires  a  person 
having  by  law  the  duty  of  furnishing  medical  at- 
tention to  a  child,  so  to  do  under  the  penalty  of  mis- 
demeanor. 

§  1172  of  the  Greater  New  York  charter  authorizes 
the  Board  of  Health  to  make  ordinances,  violation  of 
which  shall  be  a  misdemeanor. 

§§  145  to  158  of  the  New  York  City  Sanitary  Code, 
and  I  presume  of  other  codes,  provide  for  reports  of 
contagious  diseases  by  physicians,  lodging  housekeep- 
ers, masters  of  vessels,  undertakers  and  others,  and 
§  5  defines  the  term  Physician  to  include  •"  dentists  and 
every  other  person  who  practices  about  the  cure  of 
the  sick  or  injured,  or  who  has  the  charge  of,  or  pro- 
fessionally prescribes  for  any  person  sick,  injured  or 
diseased  and  any  person  who  pursues  the  business  of 
or  acts  as  a  midwife;"  a  definition  as  3^ou  see  very 
different  from  and  much  wider  than  that  of  Smith  v. 


CHKISTIAN   SCIENCE  BEFORE  THE   LAW.        109 

Lane,  and  quite  broad  enough  to  include  Christian 
Scientists. 

We  may  now  consider  first  what,  if  any,  is  the  civil 
liability  of  Christian  Scientists  for  injuries  resulting 
from  their  ignorance  and  lack  of  skill,  to  their  pa- 
tients. Second,  is  a  Christian  Scientist  guilty  of  man- 
slaughter or  murder  in  case  his  patient  dies,  as  a  result 
of  his  neglect  to  use,  or  his  prevention  of,  means  that 
demonstrably  would  have  saved  life  ? 

The  rule  of  law  is  well  established,  that  one  who 
with  culpable  ignorance  or  recklessness,  undertakes  a 
duty  requiring  for  its  proper  performance,  special 
knowledge,  skill  or  care,  is  answerable  for  the  ill 
effects  of  his  malfeasance.  In  the  law  of  bailments 
the  degree  of  care  required  of  the  bailee  has  been 
said  to  depend  in  some  measure  upon  the  compensa- 
tion. Thus  if  A  give  to  B,  a  warehouse  man,  valu- 
ables for  storage  and  pay  therefor,  more  care  is  re- 
quired of  A  than  where  B  gives  the  goods  to  a  friend 
to  be  cared  for  gratuitously, — although  even  in  the 
latter  case,  the  friend  would  not  be  absolved  from  all 
care.  It  has  been  often  sought  to  appl}^  this  doctrine 
in  cases  of  medical  malpractice,  the  argument  being 
made  that  one  who  undertakes  the  cure  of  the  sick 
without  fee  should  be  held  to  a  less  degree  of  skill  and 
care  than  where  compensation  is  given  or  promised. 
But  against  this  view  the  courts  have  set  their  faces ; 
rightly  holding  to  be  barbarous  the  doctrine  that  a 
medical  man  may  be  careless  with  the  afflicted  poor 
but  must  be  careful  with  the  rich ;  and  although  the 
laws  of  some  states  only  forbid  unlicensed  medical 
practice  in  cases  where  fees  are  taken,  still  the  re- 


110  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

ceipt  of  fee  is  not  an  essential  element  of  such  practice, 
as  a  rule,  and  does  not  affect  the  liability  for  mal- 
practice. It  has  been  said  also,  that  although  the  rule 
is,  that  a  physician's  duty  to  his  patient  implies  the 
possession  by  the  former  of  at  least  the  average 
knowledge  and  skill  of  his  profession, — regard  being 
had  to  the  state  of  medical  science, — and  the  applica- 
tion by  him  of  that  skill  and  knowledge  with  at  least 
the  ordinary  and  usual  care  of  his  fellow-practitioners, 
still  where  one  professes  to  folloAV  a  certain  school  or 
system  of  medicine,  he  is  to  be  held  to  its  standards 
and  not  to  those  of  another  school;  that  a  homeopath, 
for  instance,  is  to  be  judged  by  the  standards  of  his 
own  system.  The  ancient  judgment  of  the  Cadi, 
cited  by  Puffdendorf ,  is  ordinarily  given  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  this  point.  A  man  having  demanded  damages 
of  a  veterinary  for  blinding  him  with  an  ointment 
used  on  the  eyes  of  horses,  the  Cadi  found  for  de- 
fendant saying  that  if  plaintiff  had  not  been  an  ass,  he 
Avould  not  have  gone  to  a  horse  doctor.  This  was 
very  much  the  line  of  thought  taken  by  the  court  in 
Smith  V.  Lane  above  alluded  to  as  defining  medical 
practice  in  this  state.  It  there  appeared  that  the  de- 
fendant Lane  had  contracted  for  the  services  of  Smith, 
a  rubber  and  manipulator,  induced  by  the  latter's  pre- 
tension that  his  treatment  relieved  the  ills  of  life 
marvellously,  and  almost  robbed  death  of  its  terrors. 
After  taking  the  treatment,  Lane  refused  to  pay  the 
agreed  price  and  Smith  brought  his  action  to  recover 
it.  Our  General  Term  held  that  the  masseur  was  en- 
titled to  his  pay,  even  though  his  pretences  were  pre- 
posterous, since  the  patient  had  received  the  treat- 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  BEFORE  THE   LAW.        Ill 

ment  he  bargained  for,  while  the  fact  that  he  was  fool 
enough  to  believe  the  plaintiff's  vain  boasting  was  no 
defence,  and  not  the  court's  affair.^  The  law  merchant 
recognizes  a  seller's  right  to  praise  his  wares  and  to 
utter  any  opinion  of  them,  no  matter  how  extravagant, 
provided  he  does  not  mislead  the  purchaser  of  average 
intelligence,  by  false  statements  or  fraudulent  conceal- 
ment of  facts  as  contrasted  with  conclusions.  If  he 
has  a  broken  down  old  horse  for  sale,  the  defects  of 
which  are  patent  to  any  man  of  horse  sense,  he  may 
praise  the  brute  to  the  skies  as  a  beautiful  creature. 
And,  in  like  manner,  the  law  does  not  prohibit  that 
self-laudation  known  in  medicine  as  quacking,  which 
may  be  unethical,  but  is  not  illegal.  It  is  to  be  noted 
however,  that,  in  Smith's  case,  there  was  no  conten- 
tion that  the  patient  had  suffered  from  the  treat- 
ment any  injury,  damages  for  which  he  might  have 
offset  against  the  bill ;  and  it  might  well  be  that  a 
Christian  Scientist,  although  allowed  to  collect  fees 
under  the  doctrine  of  that  case,  might  still  be  held 
liable  for  injury  resulting  from  his  recklessness  in 
undertaking  a  duty  without  skill  or  knowledge  to  per- 
form it. 

It  is,  however,  with  the  criminal  or  penal,  not  the 
civil  side  of  the  law,  that  we  are  here  concerned  :  and 
in  this  domain  of  the  law,  the  Cadi's  judgment  is 
without  authority ;  for  if  a  veterinary  should  assume 
recklessly  to  prescribe  an  equine  dose  of  cathartic  for 
a  man,  as  in  the  merry  tale  we  all  have  heard,  it  would 
not  be  a  defence  in  a  criminal  prosecution  growing 
out  of  the  patient's  death  that  the  latter  had  assented 

I  See  pages  79  and  80  for  a  further  statement  of  the  Court's  opinion. 


112  CHKISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

to  the  treatment.     In  cases  of  manslaughter  it  is  the 
state,  not  the  individual,  that  is  offended  against ;  and 
it  is  not  to  be  presumed,  even  in  the  absence  of  specific 
legislation,  that  the  state  assents  to  the  taking  of  life 
by  gross  recklessness  or  ignorance.     In  our  own  state 
an  attempt  at  suicide  is  felony.     To  aid  or  abet  the 
attempt  is  also  felony,  and  to  aid,  abet,  advise  or  en- 
courage the  suicide  is  manslaughter  in  the  first  degree 
under  the  penal  code,  and  has  been  held  to  be  murder. 
If  A  says  to  B,  "  I  will  give  you  $50  to  kill  me,"  and  B 
obligingly  does  so,  the  latter's  felonious  act  is  not  the 
less  murder  because  of  A's  request  or  his  payment  of 
the  fee.     And  so  if  A  is  fool  enough  to  submit  to  reck- 
less and  ignorant  practice  for  the  cure  of  his  actual 
or  imagined  maladies,  his  assent  should  not  absolve  an 
ignorant  or  reckless  practitioner  from  criminal  liability 
for  the  fatal  result  of  his  malpractice.     Even  if  the  rule 
be  sound  that  each  practitioner  is  to  be  judged  by  the 
system  he  professes,  it  should  be  at  least  established 
that  he  follows  a  system  based  upon,  or  at  least  not 
contrary  to,  ordinary  observation  and  experience.     He 
cannot   call   his  whims  and  vagaries  a  system.     Ac- 
cordingly in  Massachusetts  not  long  ago,  when  there 
was  no  medical  law  in  that  state,  a  quack  was  held  by 
the  Supreme  Court,  in  a  carefully  reasoned  opinion  by 
Mr.  Justice  Holmes,  now  its  Chief  Justice,  to  have 
been  properly  convicted  of  manslaughter  for  causing 
the  death  of  a  woman  by  keeping  her  swathed  in 
flannels,  saturated  with  kerosene;   and  that  learned 
court, — repudiating  as  unsound,  or  ill-reported,  the 
earlier     Massachusetts     case,     acquitting     Thomson, 
founder  of  the  Botanic  or  Thomsonian  School,  a  case 


CHEISTIAJN-   SCIENCE   BEFORE   THE   LAW.        113 

extensively  followed  in  other  states, — intimated  that 
the  kerosene  practitioner  might  have  been  properly 
convicted  of  murder/ 

In  a  case  occurring  in  your  own  county,  last 
spring,  the  Grand  Jury  refused  to  indict,  as  I  under- 
stand, because,  upon  the  evidence  before  it,  the  ac- 
cused was  not  shown  to  have  done  more  than  render 
the  religious  offices  of  the  cult  to  the  deceased,  tiie 
former  testifying  in  her  own  behalf,  that  she  received 
no  fee,  did  not  assume  care  of  the  case,  medically,  and 
had  even  suggested  to  the  deceased,  the  propriety  of 
calling  in  medical  aid.  While  tried  by  the  ordinary 
teaching  and  customs  of  the  Christian  Scientists, — 
who  do  assume  full  charge  of  such  cases,  and  not  only 
receive  fees  but  teach  that  the  patient  gets  well  quicker 
if  he  pays  a  fat  one, — this  statement  of  the  accused 
lacked  veri-similitude,  yet,  if  believed,  it  of  course,  ex- 
culpated her.  But,  in  the  hypothetical  case  put  to 
Mr.  Carol  Norton,  as  to  which  he  refused  to  commit 
himself,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  Christian  Scien- 
tist would  be  guilty  of  manslaughter  if  not  murder.  I 
said  to  that  gentleman,  if  a  lad  should  accidentally 
sever  an  artery  and  surgical  aid  were  accessible,  would 
you  presume  to  set  that  aid  aside,  and  essay  to  staunch 
the  gush  of  arterial  blood  by  your  mental  processes 
alone?  The  question  presented  a  dilemma;  to  say 
that  he  would  not  do  so,  implied  lack  of  faith  in  the 
doctrine  he  teaches  and  practices  for  a  livelihood ;  to 
admit  that  he  would  do  so,  w^ould  confess  willingness 
to  commit  felony.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  he  preferred 
"  to  shelve  "  the  question  ? 

1  See  contents  for  paper  on  Manslaughter,  pp.  73  to  77. 


114  CHKISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

On  this  point,  then,  we  mcay  feel  assured  that  the 
malpractice  of  a  Christian  Scientist  resulting  in  death 
would  be  a  criminal  offence  under  the  law,  and  a  ver- 
dict by  a  jury  finding  one  guilty  thereof,  would  be  up- 
held; by  malpractice  I  mean  the  substitution  with 
gross  recklessness  or  ignorance,  or  both,  of  mental  proc- 
esses obviously  inefficacious,  for  medical  or  surgical 
processes  demonstrably  efficacious,  resulting  in  the 
death  of  the  patient. 

It  remains  to  consider  the  desirability  of  further 
legislation  in  the  premises. 

Personally,  as  already  indicated,  I  am  not  and 
never  have  been  a  zealous  advocate  of  too  much  legis- 
lation. Our  statute  book  has  already  upon  it  many 
laws  that  might  be  judiciously  obliterated.  A  statute 
to  be  effective  should  be  enforceable,  and  enforced 
w^ith  moderation,  with  wisdom,  and  without  any  sus- 
picion of  oppression,  gain,  or  blackmail,  upon  the  part 
of  those  charged  with  its  administration.  It  is  safe  to 
say  that  the  medical  laws  have  been  so  enforced,  oth- 
erwise there  would  be  a  strong  popular  movement  for 
their  repeal,  such  as  has  arisen  and  been  successfully 
carried  out  heretofore.  There  is  no  use  in  shutting 
one's  eye  to  facts.  Many  of  the  laws  that  are  gotten 
through  ostensibly  for  the  public  welfare,  are  really 
for  the  private  good  of  individuals  or  organizations, 
and  they  are  intrinsically  selfish  rather  than  public 
spirited.  Medical  legislation  is  in  a  sense, — a  very 
limited  sense, — inderogation  of  the  right  of  every  man 
to  employ  his  knowledge  and  talents  in  winning  his 
bread  freely  ;  obviously,  therefore,  there  is  a  point  be- 
yond which  it  cannot  go,  and  that  point  is,  the  limit 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE   BEFORE   THE    LAW.        115 

of  Avliat  is  necessary  to  protect  the  public  health  and 
individual  citizens  against  the  evil  effects  of  ignorance 
and  unskilfulness  in  the  perfoi-mance  of  a  duty  re- 
quiring knowledge  and  skill  of  the  highest  standard. 
To  say  that  no  one  should  practice  Christian  Science 
or  any  other  method  of  curing  the  sick,  would  not  be 
desirable,  politic,  or  just.  To  require,  as  has  been  sug- 
gested, that  all  sick  men  should  call  in  physicians,  is 
too  absurd  a  proposition  for  serious  consideration. 
The  utmost  that  can  be  properly  enacted  as  law  is  that 
no  one  shall  be  allowed  to  engage  in  the  business  of 
healing  the  sick  and  the  injured,  except  those  who 
have  procured  licenses  by  demonstrating  that  they  are 
possessed  of  a  fair  knowledge  of  those  branches  of 
general  and  special  knowledge  which  the  general  opin- 
ion of  mankind  agrees  are  requisite  to  fit  them  for  the 
proper  discharge  of  the  duty  Avhich  they  seek  to  assume. 
All  men  whose  opinions  are  worthy  of  consideration, 
agree  that  to  fit  one  to  deal  with  human  infirmities,  a 
course  of  study  in,  and  knowledge  of,  certain  branches 
of  science  is  necessary.  One  should  know  something 
of  anatomy,  of  physiology,  of  diet,  of  the  action  of 
drugs  and  poisons,  of  remedies  and  antidotes,  of  the 
mechanism  of  labor,— in  short,  of  what  is  generally 
known  as  medical  science.  By  demonstrating  such 
knowledge  he  procures  his  license.  He  is  not  called 
upon,  and  should  not  be  called  upon,  to  follow  any 
cut  and  dried  system,  but  should  be  left  to  the  exer- 
cise of  his  judgment,  being  responsible  to  his  patient, 
and  also  to  the  community,  for  his  abuse  of  that  judg- 
ment. He  would  be  a  very  foolish  man  who  did  not 
vary  his  treatment  in  different  cases,  who  did  not  seek 


116  CHEISTIAN  SCIENCE. 

to  widen  his  knoAvleclge,  who  would  belittle  the  great 
force  of  suggestion,  or  refuse  to  save  his  patient  by 
some  method  that  Avas  not  strictly  secundum  artem. 
A  person  so  licensed  might  practice  Christian  Science 
regularly  if  he  saw  fit  to  do  so,  but,  if  I  may  be  par- 
doned borrowing  the  language  of  our  sporting  friends, 
the  odds  are  heavy,  that  he  would  not  do  so.  This 
then  is  the  sum  of  the  whole  matter.  The  state  has  a 
perfect  right  to  require  of  persons  practicing  medi- 
cine, essaying  the  cure  and  care  of  the  sick  as  a  busi- 
ness, a  requisite  degree  of  knowledge.  Of  this  princi- 
ple the  Supreme  Court  of  the  nation,  and  those  of 
most  of  our  states,  have  expressed  approval  The  gen- 
eral opinion  of  mankind  approves  of  it. 

But,  the  Christian  Scientists  say,  no  education 
should  be  required  of  us  because  we  do  not  practice 
medicine.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Khode  Island  took 
this  view  of  the  matter  in  the  Mylod  case,  and  even 
went  so  far  as  gravely  to  suggest  that  if  Christian 
Scientists  are  to  be  considered  as  practitioners  of 
medicine,  then  they  should  be  entitled  to  a  State 
Board  of  their  own,  as  are  homeopaths  and  eclectics. 
A  lawyer  instinctively  professes,  or  expresses  the 
highest  respect  for  the  court ;  but  in  reading  this 
opinion  one  cannot  help  recalling  the  opening  of  a 
distinguished  Massachusetts  lawyer,  who  began  his  ar- 
gument by  saying,  "  Your  Honors,  I  have  the  highest 
respect  for  the  Court — except  in  a  few  gross  cases." 
It  seems  to  me,  and  this  is  said  with  all  due  deference, 
that  the  learned  Rhode  Island  Court  in  making  this 
obiter  suggestion  missed  the  whole  point  of  the  mat- 
ter.    The   Christian   Scientists   are  not  in  the  same 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE   BEFORE  THE   LAW.        117 

category  with  homeopaths,  eclectics,  or  any  body  of 
men  who,  whatever  their  scientific  opinions— call  them 
whims  and  vagaries  if  you  will,— nevertheless  profess 
to  found  their  systems  upon  human  knowledge,  ex- 
perience, and  belief  in  the  laws  of  what  we  call  mat- 
ter, and  to  accept  as  a  rule  the  fundamental  knowledge 
of  mankind  and  the  evidence  of  the  senses.     Why 
should  not  the  Christian  Scientists  have  a  State  Board 
of  Examiners  upon  the  same  terms  as  other  schools  or 
systems  professing  to  cure  the  sick  ?    We  have  three 
Medical  Boards  in  this  state,  representing  the  regular 
physicians  and  what  are  called  the  schools  of  home- 
opathy and  eclectism.     These  schools  profess  to  differ 
from  the  regular  profession  only  or  chiefly  in  their 
methods  of  treatment.     As  a  matter  of  fact  Ave  lay- 
men believe,  rightly  or   wrongly,   that  the  learned 
among  them  are  in  substantial  accord.     However  that 
may  be,  there  is  no  pretence  that  there  is  any  home- 
opathic anatomy,  or  eclectic  physiology,  or  that  chil- 
dren are  born  by  different  methods ;  in  short,  these 
differing  schools  are  agreed  upon  the  same  funda- 
mentals of  what  has  been  exactly  achieved  in  medical 
learning.      They  all  recognize  that  no  man  can  be 
equipped  for  medical  practice  under  any  system,  who 
ignores  the   basic  facts  of  life;   and  our  examining 
boards  subject  all  candidates  for  license  to  the  same 
examinations  in  every  department  of  medicine  except' 
in  therapeutics.     Now  what  objection  would  there  be 
to  letting  Christian  Scientists  have  a  state  board  under 
these  conditions,  greater  than  the  objection  the  Chris- 
tian Scientists  themselves  would  raise  ?     If  Mrs.  Eddy 
or  Mr.  Norton,  or  any  of  the  cult  could  demonstrate 


118  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

the  possession  of  that  knowledge  of  anatomy,  physi- 
ology, hygiene,  the  action  of  drugs  and  poisons,  ob- 
stetrics and  other  matters  which  all  men,  worthy  to 
be  called  scientific,  agree  are  necessary  to  lit  one  to 
care  for  the  sick,  why  should  he  and  she  not  be  allowed 
to  practice  Mrs.  Eddy's  system,  if,  having  attained  to 
such  knowledge,  they  still  believed  that  system  to 
contain  the  true  therapeutic  ?  Of  course  I  do  not 
wish  to  be  understood  as  favoring  any  such  a  proposi- 
tion, or  believing  it  practicable.  I  do  not  believe  it 
possible  that  persons  conversant  with  the  human 
economy  w^ould  be  content  to  practice  Eddyism  ;  but 
on  the  contrary,  believe  that  if  such  a  board  as  the 
Ehode  Island  Court  suggested  were  established,  it 
would  result  in  the  practice  of  medicine  by  Christian 
Scientists,  even  if  they  still  kept  to  their  name  for  the 
sake  of  the  clientelage  it  would  bring. 

But  how  can  a  State  Board  be  constituted  to  ex- 
amine in  scientific  matters  a  class  of  persons  who  deny 
the  existence  of  scientific  knowledge  as  do  the  Eddy- 
ites,  who  deny  the  existence  of  matter,  of  disease  or 
injury,  of  everything  that  is  recognized  throughout 
Christendom  as  a  material  fact  ?  How  that  wise  Pa- 
gan Socrates  would  have  laughed  over  the  proposition 
that  man  is  fitted  to  cure  sickness  in  proportion  to 
his  denial  of  its  existence  !  How  he  would  have  rev- 
elled in  putting  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  board  of  lecturers 
through  such  a  cross  examination  as  he  gave  to  Eu- 
thydemus  !  Socrates,  whose  sane  mind  preached  con- 
stantly one  gospel,  that  man  must  be  trained  and 
fitted  for  his  work  in  order  to  do  it  well,  that  a  pilot 
must  know  all  about  vessels  and  steering;  a  tailor 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE   BEFORE   TllE   LAW.        Ill) 

about  fabrics  and  cutting* ;  a  statesman  about  govern- 
ment and  law ;  and  a  physician  about  tlie  human 
economy.  The  solemn  nonsense  uttered  by  intelli- 
gent men  in  support  of  this  cunning  and  ignorant  old 
lady's  money-making  scheme  would  be  enough  to 
make  the  gods  shake  with  Olympian  laughter,  except 
that  tears  and  wrath  chase  away  the  smiles  when  we 
contemplate  how  horrible  it  is  to  subject  even  the 
willing  and  credulous  to  the  treatment  of  these  mad 
people.  It  is  bad  enough  to  realize  the  mistakes  of 
diagnosis  and  treatment  made  by  men  of  skill  and 
learning.  Ko  one  but  a  fool  believes  that  physicians 
are  infallible,  or  that  medicine  is  a  perfect  science ; 
no  one  with  an  atom  of  sense  would  consent  to  have 
the  present  medical  practice  established  by  law  and 
the  wheels  of  progress  stopped.  It  is  tiresome  but 
necessary  to  say  this  a  thousand  times,  in  answer  to 
the  wearisome  iteration  of  the  quack  fraternity,  that 
medical  law  is  only  designed  to  maintain  the  present. 
How  can  we  keep  patience  with  the  ever-recurring 
argument  that  because  the  learned  and  skilful  make 
some  mistakes,  the  ignorant  and  inept  should  have 
free  hand  to  make  errors  innumerable  ?  Why  must 
we  forever  answer  seriously  the  argument,  or  rather 
the  asseveration,  that  there  is  something  solemnly 
precious  in  ignorance  and  something  suspicious  in 
knowledge  ?  A  schoolboy  who  has  once  read  Cicero's 
oration  for  Archias  has  the  answer  to  this  dismal  pat- 
ter forever  on  his  lips. 

Let  us  illustrate,  with  a  few  examples,  just  what 
Christian  Science  demands  the  right  to  do  ignorantly, 
and  Avhat  its  opponents  say  should  only  be  attempted 


120  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

with  knowledge  and  skill.     Childbirth  is  not   a  dis- 
ease or  a  sickness   but  the  healthy  operation  of  a 
normal  function.     Without  any  attendance  at  all,  or 
with  the  attendance  of  a  Christian  Scientist,— it  is  the 
same  thing, — children  are  constantly  brought  into  the 
world  with  labor  and  great  pain.     But,  in  our  modern 
life  especially,  there  are  complications  demanding  the 
highest  skill  for  their  safe  treatment ;  and  pain,  if  not 
banished,  may  be  minimized.     How  horrible  it  is  to 
imagine  a  case  of  jplacenta  praevia^  or  an   abnormal 
presentation  in  the  hands  of  these  mad  people  who 
pretend  that  the  mere  reading  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  of 
jargon  fits  the  reader  to  take  care  of  any  case  of  sick- 
ness or  obstetrics  !     Is  it  much  if  anything  short  of 
murder  for  an  Eddyite,  taught  only  by  the  contents 
of  that  dreary  book  to  attend  such  cases  as  those  sup- 
posed ?     Again,  a  child  swallows  poison ;  then  there 
is  a  possibility,— a  probability,— it  may  be  a  certainty, 
— that  competent  medical  aid  seasonably  called  in,  will 
save  the  child ;  what  is  to  be  thought  of  the  parent 
who  calls  in  the  ignorant  Christian  Scientist,  what  of 
the  latter  who  mentally  argues  with  the  symptoms  of 
poisoning  that  he  cannot  recognize  and  excludes  the 
necessary  and  efficient  aid  ?    Is  he  not  a  man  slaugh- 
terer, nay  a  murderer  ?     Once  more,  a  case  of  small- 
pox, malignant  diphtheria,  or  scarlet  fever  breaks  out 
in  a  tenement  house  full  of  children;  medical  aid  being 
called  may  cure  it,  or,  at  all  events,  recognizing  the 
disease,  may  isolate  the  patient,  disinfect  the  premises 
and   stop   the   spread   of   contagion.      The  Christian 
Scientist  comes,  in  his  crass  ignorance  denies  that  there 
is  any  disease  present  and  sits  down  in  solemn  mad- 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE   BEFORE   THE   LAW.        121 

ness  to  argue  with  what  he  calls  an  erroneous  belief 
of  mortal  mind — the  contagion  spreads  and  there  is  a 
new  slaughter  of  innocents.  Is  not  the  so-called 
scientist  a  pest,  and  should  he  not  be  incarcerated  in  a 
prison  or  a  madhouse  where  the  community  may  be 
safe  from  him  in  the  future  ? 

There  is  no  further  provision  of  law  needed  to  deal 
with  these  people  than  to  widen  the  definition  of 
medical  practice  sufficiently  to  correspond  with  that 
of  the  sanitary  code — require  of  them  before  they  are 
permitted  to  take  charge  of  the  sick,  the  same  degree 
of  knowledge  that  is  required  of  a  Eoman  Catholic,  a 
Protestant  or  a  Mohammedan.  Is  it  too  much  to  ask 
that  the  legislature  do  this,  or  shall  we  accept  the 
argument — and  it  is  the  only  one  that  is  made  in  be- 
half of  these  people,  that  any  scoundrel  or  sincere 
fanatic  may  commit  any  wicked  act  for  reward  and 
shelter  himself  under  the  plea  that  he  considered  it 
his  religious  duty  to  commit  the  offence. 

If  all  men  were  wise,  if  fallacies  did  not  have  a 
fascination  for  intelligent  minds,  if  in  our  own  day  as 
ever  since  the  world  began,  every  unknown  thing 
were  not  for  some  minds  a  wonderful  thing,  if  an  age 
of  scepticism  were  not  also  notoriously  an  age  of 
credulity,  there  would  not  be  need  even  of  this  much 
legislation.  It  is  for  you  and  for  other  men  of  your 
profession  and  for  laymen  as  well  to  turn  the  light 
into  this  reeking  corner  of  superstition,  strip  the  dis- 
guise away  and  show  what  is  below  it  and  you  will 
not  have  need  even  of  this  much  law,  for  after  all  the 
law  has  never  been  able  to  protect  a  fool  against  the 
consequence  of  his  folly. 


HOW   FAE    CAN    LEGISLATION    AID   IN   MAINTAINING 

A   PKOPEK  STANDARD   OF   MEDICAL 

EDUCATION?^ 

Mr.  President^  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : —  I  desire, 
first  of  all,  to  express  my  indebtedness  to  those  gentle- 
men in  the  different  States  and  Territories  of  this  coun- 
try and  in  the  British  Provinces  to  whose  courteous 
replies  to  a  circular  letter  of  inquiry  upon  the  general 
topic  of  Medical  Legislation,  sent  to  them  in  the 
early  part  of  the  summer,  it  is  due  that  the  conclusions 
of  this  paper  may  be  said  with  fairness,  I  think,  to  rep- 
resent not  only  the  opinion  of  others  besides  myself, 
but  prevailing  opinions  among  those  whose  chief  in- 
terest in  medical  legislation  is  that  it  shall  confine  the 
practice  of  medicine  to  educated  persons,  regardless  of 
any  particular  views  they  may  entertain  as  to  ques- 
tions of  therapeutics. 

It  is  not  intended  to  present  statistics  here.  My 
correspondence  has  not  yielded  any  from  which  I 
should  care  to  deduce  conclusions,  nor  are  they  needed 
to  substantiate  what  I  hope  may  prove  fair  reasoning 
and  sound  deduction. 

This  paper  must  be,  therefore,  a  statement  of  what 
I  conceive  to  be  general  principles  and  fair  inferences 
from  an  experience  of  some  years,  as  counsel  of  the 

»  Read  before  the  American  Social  Science  Association,  Sept.  5,  1888. 

123 


124  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

medical  societies  of  the  State  and  of  the  county  of 
New  York,  in  drafting  and  securing  the  enactment  of 
the  present  by  no  means  perfect  medical  statute  of 
that  State,  and  enforcing  in  the  county  of  New  York 
obedience  to  its  provisions. 

It  may  be  said,  however,  as  the  general  result  of  the 
inquiries,  which  were  made  in  every  State  and  Terri- 
tory of  this  country,  and  also  in  the  British  Provinces, 
that  almost  every  reply  to  the  circulars  expressed  ap- 
proval of  some  system  of  regulating  by  statute  the 
practice  of  medicine ;  and  the  opinion  was  also  strongly 
expressed  that  such  legislation  as  has  been  already  en- 
acted crude  and  imperfect  though  it  be,  has  perceptibly 
improved  the  standard  of  medical  education. 

At  the  threshold  of  this  inquiry,  it  is  worth  while 
to  lay  down  certain  postulates. 

First  of  all,  let  it  be  said  distinctly  that  such  legisla- 
tion as  we  are  about  to  consider  is  regarded  by  the 
courts  both  as  constitutional  and  as  highly  desirable. 
It  ought  to  be  scarcely  necessary  to  have  to  say  this. 
But  the  opponents  of  statutory  regulation  of  medical 
practice  so  constantly  declare  it  to  be  an  infringe- 
ment of  the  liberties  of  the  citizen,  and  therefore  un- 
constitutional, that  one  may  well  preface  any  remarks 
of  this  nature  with  the  assurance  that,  so  far  as  any 
principle  can  be  considered  as  settled  and  approved  by 
judicial  authority,  the  principle  involved  in  this  sort  of 
legislation  stands  settled  and  approved  by  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States,  and  that  of  every 
lesser  commonwealth  before  which  it  has  been 
brought. 

In  the  second  place,  it  is  necessary  to  state  the  only 


LEGISLATION   AND   MEDICAL   EDUCATION.      125 

principle  upon  which  such  legislation  can  be  justified. 
That  principle  is  salus  popuU,— the  iprmci^le  of  secu- 
rity,  of  self-protection  against  fraud  and  ignorance.    It 
is  a  vulgar  and  frequent  assertion  of  foolish  persons, 
who  really  believe  in  the  ^'z^^^i-supernatural  powers 
of  the  ignorant  and  depraved,  and  of   knaves  who, 
professing  to  have  such  powers,  prey  upon  the  credu- 
lity of  their  suffering  fellow-creatures  that  the  only 
purpose  of  medical  legislation  is  to  increase  the  emolu- 
ments of  a  favored  class  by  obstructing  entrance  into 
it  with  such  barriers  as  will  exclude  many  honest  but 
ignorant  voters  from  the  right  to  practice  physic,  and 
so,  by  limiting  the  number  of  its  practitioners  to  the 
educated,  lessen  competition.     It  is  not  necessary  to 
demonstrate  to  you  the  falsity  of  this  slander,  or  to 
argue  in  favor  of  the  propriety  and  justice  in  princi- 
ple of  throwing  safeguards  about  a  profession  intrusted 
more  than  any  other  with  the  health,  honor,  and  life 
of  the  citizen.     Surely  the  State  has  a  right  to  protect 
the  lives,  health,  and  bodily  welfare  of  its  members 
against  the  assault  of  the  charlatan  quite  as  much  as 
against   the  assault  of  a  more  courageous   homicide. 
JSTor  is  it  altogether  an  answer  to  this  argument  to  say 
that,  inasmuch  as  a  man  voluntarily  selects  the  char- 
latan as  his  medical  attendant,  w^hile  he  exercises  no 
choice  as  to  the  homicide,  there  is  no  analogy  between 
the  two  cases.     It  is  quite  impossible  for  me  to  see  in 
what  regard,  except  cowardice,  a  man  who,  with  ab- 
solutely no  knowledge  of  the  human  economy  or  the 
effect  upon  it  of  drugs,  attempts  to  practice  medicine 
for  fee  or  reward  differs,  when  his  practice  proves 
fatal,  from  the  less  crafty  murderer  who  for  reward, 


126  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

if  not  for  fee,  knocks  his  victim  on  the  head.     There 
is  this  difference  also  between  the  two  offences,— the 
quack's  is  chronic,  the  homicide's  sporadic.     But,  as 
between  the  courageous  homicide  and  the  venders  of 
quack  remedies  compounded  with  morphia  and  like 
poisons,  the  former  seems  admirable.     It  is  said,  in- 
deed, that  the  patient  having  his  choice  of  medical 
advisers  will  exercise  it  wisely ;  and,  if  he  does  not, 
the  civil  remedy  for  malpractice,  accruing  to  himself 
or  his  representatives,  is  a  sufficient  remedy  for  one 
foolish  enough  to  seek  such  advice.    But  civil  remedies 
are  expensive  luxuries  of  doubtful  result,  and,  besides 
that,  the  interest  of  the  community  does  not  centre  in 
punishing  an  offence  committed  on  one  of  its  mem- 
bers, but  in  preventing  its  repetition  against  others. 
I  am  not  aware  that  it  is  recognized  as  a  defence  to  a 
charge  of  homicide  occurring,  say,  in  the  prize-ring, 
that  the  deceased  invited  his  antagonist  to  fight  with 
him  in  an  amiable  contention  for  a  purse,  which  should 
be  the  fee  or  reward  of  the  victor;  and,  indeed,  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  prize-fighter,  unlucky  enough  to 
kill  his  opponent,  deserves  more  sympathy  than  the 
charlatan ;  for  his  antagonist  had  a  chance  to  win  the 
fee  and  perhaps  do  the  killing  himself,  whereas  be- 
tween quack  and  patient  the  former  stands  to  win  the 
fee,  while  the  latter  will  never  compel  his  adviser  to 
swallow  his  own  prescription. 

In  considering  what  legislation  can  do  in  bettering 
any  social  condition,  we  must  never  forget  that  the 
best  law  which  can  be  framed  is  but  an  exceedingly 
clumsy  instrument  for  the  enforcement  of  even  the 
elementary  moral  obligations  that  are  clear  to  all  of 


LEGISLATION   AND    MEDICAL    EDUCATION.      127 

US.  Almost  everybody  of  cultivation  can  see  a  reason 
for  prohibiting — not  for  the  sake  of  those  directly 
interested,  but  as  harmful  to  the  community — prize- 
fights, duels,  bull-fights,  bridge  jumpings,  and  all  other 
performances,  including  suicide,  whereby  foolish  men 
not  only  risk  their  own  lives,  which  might  be  no  great 
loss  to  us,  but  set  a  pernicious  and  demoralizing  ex- 
ample. The  offence  against  society  by  such  precedents 
is  so  palpable  and  gross  that  a  very  crude  mind  will 
assent  to  the  justice  of  their  punishment  when  com- 
mitted and  the  forbidding  of  their  occurrence.  But 
the  transgression  of  the  charlatan  is  somewhat  more 
subtle  and  a  thousandfold  more  dangerous ;  yet,  be- 
cause his  services  are  sought  by  his  victim  in  the 
belief  that  they  are  a  prevention,  not  a  source  of 
danger,  many  consider  his  acts  as  matter  of  private 
interest,  and  overlook  the  public  wrong.  From  the 
standpoint  of  morals  alone,  the  quack,  from  whose 
ignorance,  and  worse  than  ignorance,  a  patient's  death 
results,  stands  in  the  same  relation  to  one  who  has 
committed  murder  while  engaged  in  robbery  that  the 
subtle  wrecker  of  a  great  corporation  does  to  the  un- 
lucky scamp  who  has  stolen  the  wherewithal  to  get 
his  daily  bread  or  rum,  as  the  case  might  be.  The 
difficulty  of  tracing  the  effect  to  its  cause  is  the  safety 
of  the  former  offender,  and  it  is  not  unfair  to  say  that 
the  chief  wrongdoing  punishable  by  law  is  clumsiness 
in  execution.  To  succeed  in  crime,  one  must  be  an 
artist. 

It  is  when  we  come  to  seek  a  legal  remedy  against 
the  immoralities  of  quackery  that  the  difficulty  of 
reaching  them  without  making  laws  themselves  ob- 


128  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

jectionable    becomes   apparent.      Bentham  lias   very 
well  pointed  out  that  moral  and  statutory  law  have 
identical   purposes   and   are   governed   by   the   same 
principles,  differing  only  in  this  :  that,  although  both 
are  circumferences  in  the  same  plane,  they  are  con- 
centric and  of  unequal  radii.     Each  circumference  has 
the  same  centre, — namely,  the  greatest  happiness  of 
each  and  of  all;    but   the   circumference   of   morals 
bounds  the  entire  plane  of  human  action,  whereas  that 
of  law,  of  which  the  radius  may  be  said  to  be  prac- 
ticability of  enforcement,  has  a  much  narrower  scope. 
Whatever  is  legal  is,  or  certainly  should  be,  moral. 
But  there  are  a  thousand  moralities  the  attempt  to 
enforce  which  by  law  Avould  lead  to  evils  far  greater 
than  those  sought  to  be  obviated.     In  one  sense,  law 
itself  may  be  almost  called  an  evil,  since  it  is  not  only 
a  restriction  of  freedom  in  action,  but  a  restriction 
which  unfortunately  can  often  be  enforced  only  at  the 
cost  of  inflicting  lesser  evils  than  it  is  designed  to 
prevent :  thus,  for  example,  the  existing  medical  stat- 
utes  of    most   of  our   States  recognize,   as   the   sole 
license  for  the  practice  of  medicine,  the  possession  by 
the  licentiate  of  a  diploma  from  a  chartered  college 
conferring  the  degree  of  doctor  of  medicine.     And, 
while  it  may  be  perfectly  true  that  the  probabilities 
are  greatly  in  favor  of  a  beneficial  result  from  these 
laws  in  limiting  the  number  of  uneducated  practition- 
ers of  physic,  it  is  also  quite  as  true  that  a  factitious 
value  is  given  by  such  legislation  to  a  mere  parchment, 
and  a  standard  set  which  cannot  be  higher  than  that 
of  the  poorest  college  the  diploma  of  which  is  recog- 
nized as  a  license ;  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  in  many 


LEGISLATION   AND   MEDICAL   EDUCATION.      129 

cases  persons  of  fair  attainments  acquired  through 
extra  collegiate  study  may  be  debarred,  temporarily 
at  all  events,  from  a  right  possessed  by  a  far  more 
ignorant  graduate  of  some  contemptible  school  incor- 
porated by  a  too  complaisant  legislature.  These  inci- 
dental hardships  under  existing  laws  are  more  than 
offset  by  the  increased  security  of  society  against 
ignorant  pretenders ;  but  they  show  how  necessary  it 
is  to  keep  it  in  mind  that  a  statute  must  be  not  only 
right  in  its  purpose,  but  must  neither  work  greater 
evil  than  it  prevents  nor  be  impracticable  of  enforce- 
ment. 

Of  course,  no  penal  or  restrictive  law  can  be  effect- 
ively enforced  if  its  purpose  does  not  commend  itself 
to  the  moral  sense  of  the  community ;  and  every  en- 
actment that  cannot  be  vigorously  enforced  is  an  en- 
cumbrance to  the  statute  book",  useless  lumber,  like 
the  purchases  of  Mrs.  Toodles  at  auction-rooms  of 
coffins  and  door-plates  that  might  be  handy  some  day, 
— nay,  worse  than  useless,  for,  like  lumber  in  a  dark 
garret,  such  statutes  are  stumbling-blocks  for  the  un- 
wary. 

The  law  is  a  schoolmaster  over  and  above  all  thing's. 
Its  chief  value  lies  in  the  fact  that  its  daily  enforce- 
ment is  a  constant  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness 
against  the  evils  that  it  prohibits  and  punishes.  Any 
one  so  unfortunate,  or  perhaps  I  should  say  fortunate, 
as  to  be  called  often  to  a  police  court  must  at  times 
feel  that  the  attempt  by  legislation  to  check  even  the 
gross  and  palpable  crimes  against  person  and  property 
is  a  never-ending  toil  of  Sisyphus.  The  stone  seems 
to  roll  back  every  night  as  far  as  it  is  rolled  up  every 


130  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

morning.  The  same  faces  turn  up,  the  same  crimes 
are  committed  over  and  over  by  the  same  persons. 
We  grow  disheartened  when  we  seek  the  good  effect 
of  a  penal  statute  among  the  individuals  who  have 
felt  its  heavy  hand, — and  this  is  most  sincerely  to  be 
regretted, — but  we  pluck  up  heart  when  we  see  the 
number  of  individuals  who  are  deterred  from  crime 
and  educated  to  an  appreciation  of  the  common  rights 
by  the  law's  enforcement. 

The  chief  purpose  of  legislators  in  times  past  was 
the  punishment  and  remedy  of  evil  committed.  The 
tendency  of  modern  law  is  toward  prevention.  We 
are  seeing  more  and  more  the  wisdom  of  the  clever 
Irishman  who  "  hollered  before  he  was  hurt,"  because 
he  could  see  little  use  in  hallooing  afterward. 

What  has  been  said  up  to  this  point  may  seem,  per- 
haps, if  not  irrelevant  to  the  topic,  nevertheless  such 
a  statement  of  general  principles  as  it  is  not  necessary 
to  make  before  an  audience  of  students  of  social 
science.  And,  if  the  words  uttered  here  found  no 
audience  beyond  these  walls,  it  might  have  been  well 
to  consider  only  the  desirable  features  of  a  good 
medical  act.  But  I  owe  the  honor  of  being  asked  to 
address  you  to  the  fact  that  it  has  been  my  profes- 
sional privilege  for  some  years  to  advise  those  medical 
societies  that  have  been  striving  to  protect  both  the 
public  and  the  medical  profession  of  the  State  of  New 
York  against  pretenders.  What  is  said  here  is  carried 
to  many  beyond  reach  of  our  voices.  What  to  you 
may  be  truisms  are  to  many  intelligent  men  theorems 
to  be  demonstrated.  Medical  legislation  is  never 
asked  for,  but  a  cloud  of  misunderstanding  and  mis- 


LEGISLATIO]^-   AND   MEDICAL   EDUCATION.      131 

statement  at  once  arises,  and  the  proposed  measure  is 
attacked  as  unsound  in  principle  and  unfair  in  practice. 

It  has  therefore  seemed  proper  both  to  clear  away 
all  such  mistiness  before  ansAvering  in  the  most  gen- 
eral terms  the  question  at  the  head  of  this  paper,  and 
to  make  plain  to  every  one  who  may  hear  or  read  these 
words  the  spirit  in  which  the  medical  societies  of  'New 
York  are  acting  in  this  matter, — a  spirit  that  must 
commend  itself  to  men  of  fair  minds  and  common  sense. 

Starting,  then,  with  these  general  principles, — that 
under  its  police  power  the  State  has  authority  to  reg- 
ulate the  practice  of  medicine,  and  that  no  law  can  be 
of  real  utility  that  cannot  be  enforced  actively, — we 
may  examine  within  what  limits  it  is  wise  to  exercise 
that  authority,  and  how  far  its  exercise  can  aid  in 
maintaining  a  proper  standard  of  medical  education. 

If  no  law  can  be  effectively  enforced  that  arouses 
strong  antagonism  in  the  community  at  large,  it  is 
manifest  that  a  medical  law  enacted  to  favor  any 
special  class  of  practitioners  of  medicine,  to  uphold  or 
suppress  any  theory  of  medical  practice,  to  establish 
any  set  of  regulations  as  to  fees,  or  that  is  otherwise 
obnoxious  to  the  great  body  of  citizens  would  prob- 
ably soon  become  a  dead  letter  and  positively  harmful 
to  the  whole  medical  profession.  In  the  Medical  Rec- 
ord of  September  11,  1886,  I  endeavored,  in  an  article 
entitled  the  "  Evolution  of  the  Apothecary,"  ^  to  illus- 
trate this  point  by  tracing  the  struggle  of  the  College 
of  Physicians  to  reserve  to  its  licentiates  the  exclu- 
sive right  under  its  charter  to  prescribe  medicine. 
After  some  two  hundred  years  of  successful  prosegu- 

»  See  page  145, 


132  CHKISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

tions  of  apothecaries  and  others,  the  college  met  its 
Waterloo  in  1703,  when  Apothecary  Eose,  on  his  ap- 
peal to  the  House  of  Lords  from  the  judgment  of  the 
courts  in  favor  of  the  college,  succeeded  in  having  his 
appeal  sustained,  not  on  points  of  law,  but  because  the 
system  in  vogue  seemed  to  the  Peers  absurd,  as  neces- 
sitating the  employment  in  trifling  cases  of  two  or 
three  persons  at  large  fees, — a  physician  to  prescribe, 
an  apothecary  to  dispense,  and  perhaps  a  surgeon  to 
operate, — a  state  of  things  that  a  Peer  would  not  sub- 
mit to  in  the  case  of  his  sick  servant,  and  would  not 
require  a  poor  man  to  submit  to  in  his  own  case.  The 
physicians  had  their  fee  system  and  their  professional 
pride  to  thank  for  their  defeat  in  this  as  in  some  other 
instances.  This  decision  having  made  it  possible  for 
every  ignoramus  to  tinker  with  the  health  of  John 
Bull,  it  happened  in  time  that  the  apothecaries,  w^ho  had 
routed  the  physicians  on  the  point  of  fees  and  acquired 
a  right  to  prescribe  as  well  as  dispense  their  own 
drugs,  after  a  hundred  years'  experience  of  the  results 
of  their  freedom,  during  which  period  general  medical 
education  had  sunk  to  a  dismal  condition  and  quackery 
had  flowered  abundantly,  procured  from  Parliament 
the  amendment  to  their  charter  known  as  the  Apoth- 
ecaries Act,  whereby  their  Hall  was  empowered  to  ex- 
amine and  license  apothecaries.  The  enactment  of 
this  statute  according  to  Sir  Henry  Halforcl,  who  had 
opposed  its  passage,  "raised  the  standard  of  that 
branch  of  the  profession  amazingly." 

In  other  words,  the  very  men  who  procured  the  ex- 
tension to  themselves  of  the  right  to  prescribe,  because 
of  the  burdensome  regulations  of  the  physician,  solic- 


LEGISLATION  AND  MEDICAL  EDUCATION.      133 

ited  a  restriction  of  that  right  when  they  found  that 
charlatanry  and  ignorance  were  rapidly  getting  con- 
trol of  general  practice.  In  this  page  of  history,  we 
find  evidence  that  a  law  prescribing,  with  a  view  to 
the  general  good,  educational  qualifications  for  practi- 
tioners of  physic  will  obtain  favor  where  statutes  par- 
taking of  a  trades-union  spirit,  using  that  word  not  in 
its  better  sense,  will  fail.  I  use  the  term  "  trades- 
union  "  here  for  lack  of  a  better,  and  not  as  one  neces- 
sarily conveying  an  objectionable  idea.  In  the  sense 
that  a  trades-union  is  a  combination  of  artificers  to  im- 
prove their  moral,  physical,  and  mental  condition  by 
all  lawful  means  consistent  with  a  due  regard  to  the 
rights  of  the  community  at  large,  it  is  a  perfectly 
proper  organization,  and  much  to  be  commended  as  an 
element  in  the  common  welfare.  In  so  far  as  such 
a  combination,  however,  seeks  to  carry  out  a  plan  for 
procuring  high  wages  by  violently  obstructing  others 
in  their  rights  to  earn  a  livelihood  in  legitimate  ways, 
it  is  an  intolerable  evil  in  society.  What  is  true  of 
the  trades-union  of  artificers  is  equally  true  of  organi- 
zations of  capital  similarly  designed ;  but,  both  in 
handicrafts  and  trade, — the  ostensible  objects  of  which 
are  avowedly  selfish,  being  the  pursuit  of  wealth  or 
the  earning  of  livelihood, — such  combinations  as  these 
are  more  understandable,  if  not  more  defensible,  than 
like  combinations  among  men  engaged  in  the  quest  of 
scientific  truth.  The  avowed  object  of  incorporating 
medical  societies  is  stated  in  their  charters,  in  JSTew 
York  at  least,  to  be  "to  contribute  to  the  diffusion  of 
true  science  and  particularly  the  knowledge  of  the 
healing  art."     When  they  transgress  these  limits,  and 


134  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

seek  to  establish  burdensome  fee  systems  or  to  forcibly 
check  what  they  consider  schismatic  opinions,  the  law 
interferes  to  restrain  them  within  their  proper  bounds. 
The  courts  have  wisely,  in  most  instances,  declined  to 
pronounce  upon  any  questions  of  opinion  or  to  inter- 
pret the  word  "  physician  "  in  acts  regulating  medical 
practice  so  as  to  favor  the  therapeutical  systems  of  any 
body  of  practitioners.  It  is  all  one  to  the  law  whether 
the  doctrine  of  similia  or  the  doctrine  of  contraria 
prevail,  whether  the  patient  be  dosed  with  the  highest 
potency  or  the  most  heroic  bolus ;  and  this  point  was 
settled  finally  and  wisely  in  the  State  of  New  York 
by  the  case  of  Corsi  vs.  Maretzek  (4  E.  D.  Smith,  1), 
where  the  court  refused  to  accept  the  contention  that 
a  homeopathist  was  not  a  physician  in  the  legal  sense 
of  the  term  because  he  followed  a  system  of  healing 
disapproved  of  by  the  majority  of  practitioners  of 
medicine.  No  statute  can  be  effective  that  is  even 
suspected  of  the  design  to  shackle  or  suppress  opinion. 
Free  thought  is  the  breath,  the  life,  of  the  scientific 
search  for  truth,  as  humility  is  its  badge.  AVhen  a 
man  or  a  profession  reaches  the  point  where  intoler- 
ance and  self-satisfaction  take  the  place  of  humility 
and  fair  inquiry,  paresis  of  the  soul  has  commenced. 
It  is  the  law  of  our  existence  that 

"  The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new; 
And  God  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways, 
Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world." 

I  dwell  upon  this  point  because  the  reason  that  we 
do  not  have  in  New  York  to-day  a  State  Board  of 
Medical  Examiners,  such  as  we  find  in  Illinois  and 
European  countries,  and  such  as  is  requisite  to  any  ef- 


LEGISLATION   AND   MEDICAL   EDUCATION.      135 

fective  scheme  for  securing  a  fair  average  of  education 
among  medical  licentiates,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it 
has  proved  impossible  up  to  this  time  to  bring  into  ac- 
cord as  to  the  organization  of  such  a  board  regular 
physicians,  homeopaths,  and  eclectics.     About  three- 
quarters  of  the  entire  number  of  medical  practitioners 
in  the  State  are  regular  physicians ;  that  is,  practition- 
ers calling  themselves  by  the  name  of  no  "  school "  or 
"  sect."     They  number  something  like  six  thousand. 
The  homeopaths  and  eclectics  number  about  twenty- 
one  hundred.     Bills   to  create  one  or  more  central 
boards  of  medical  examiners  have  been  introduced 
into  the  legislature  during  the  last  four  years  at  the 
instance  of  each  of  these  parties.     These  bills  have 
agreed  substantially  in  all  points  save  two  :  first,  the 
examination  in  therapeutics ;  and,  second,  the  organ- 
ization of  the  board.     The  physicians  have  insisted 
that  their  numerical  ratio  of  three-fourths  entitles  them 
to  a  representation  in  the  board  of  at  least  two-thirds. 
The  two  "  schools  "  insist  that,  if  this  ratio  should  be 
given,  their  candidates  would  be  plucked  and  their 
"schools"  effaced,  and  that,  when  this  was  accom- 
plished, the  physicians  would  at  once  order  new  vials 
of  enormous  size,  larger  boluses  and  nastier  drugs  than 
ever  before,  that  even  the  daughter  of  the  horse-leech 
would  be  silent  from  satiety,  and  the  cup  and  lancet 
would  once  more  drench  the  land  with  gore. 

In  other  words,  we  have  this  condition  of  things : 
Three  parties  exist  whose  interests  are  at  stake  in  the 
proposed  legislation.  All  declare  that  they  favor  re- 
stricting the  practice  to  men  who  have  studied  chemis- 
try, botany,  physics,  anatomy,  physiology,  diagnosis, 


136  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

microscopy,  etc.  The  homeopaths  and  eclectics  hold 
no  sectarian  views  as  to  the  atomic  theory  or  the  law 
of  gravitation,  and  agree  with  those  whom  they  dub 
allopaths  as  to  which  has  the  greater  number  of  ribs 
a  man  or  a  woman.  But,  when  we  come  to  materia 
medica  and  therapeutics,  we  find  a  "  state  of  things." 
Col.  Jones,  having  a  severe  pain  in  the  vicinity  of  his 
sword-belt,  sends  for  his  army  surgeon,  a  regular 
physician ;  the  baby  has  a  sensation  in  its  correspond- 
ing region,  and  Mrs.  Jones  calls  in  her  homeopathic 
adviser, — for  Jones  indulges  her  in  matters  affecting 
her  own  baby  ;  the  nurse,  experiencing  a  similar  agita- 
tion, tries  an  eclectic  ;  and  the  old  "  mammy  "  in  the 
kitchen,  feeling  a  like  distress,  sticks  a  pin  in  the  care- 
fully concealed  rag  baby  she  keeps  for  such  occasions. 
All  experience  relief ;  and  each,  like  the  pedler  who 
was  kicked  off  four  landings  of  a  factory  in  quick  suc- 
cession, is  lost  in  admiration  of  the  beauty  of  the  system. 
Let  us  admit  the  truth  that,  while  surgery  has  be- 
come almost  an  exact  science  as  compared  to  its  sister, 
— physic, — the  latter  is  yet  in  the  condition  that  un- 
questioning faith  in  the  efficacy  of  medication  and  a 
willingness  to  break  a  lance  for  a  system  of  therapeu- 
tics is  to  be  found  rather  at  the  bottom  than  at  the  top 
of  the  profession.  Therefore,  whatever  our  beliefs  or 
prejudices,  we  may  as  well  make  up  our  minds  that 
no  law  will  be  tolerated  that  shall  endeavor  openly  or 
covertly  to  favor  or  obstruct  any  system  of  medical 
practice  as  a  system,  regardless  of  the  attainments  of 
its  professors.  AVhatever  the  facts  may  be,  the  law 
considers  that  the  true  physician  is  no  blind  partisan  of 
any  theory.     He  knows  how  feeble  his  best  efforts  are 


LEGISLATION   AND   MEDICAL   EDUCATION.      137 

to  combat  disease,  how  few  the  medicaments  that  can  be 
used  with  certain  results.  In  proportion  as  he  is  learned 
and  wise,  he  pins  his  faith  neither  to  a  doctrine  of 
similia  nor  of  contraria^  realizing  that  differences  of 
opinion  arise  not  from  knowledge,  but  from  ignorance. 

The  stumbling-blocks  in  the  way  of  every  eifort  to 
achieve  wise  medical  legislation  are :  first,  the  ig- 
norance and  greed  of  the  believers  in  and  practicers 
of  ^'i^a^^'-supernatural  methods  of  treating  disease ; 
second,  jealousies  among  the  more  intelligent  adher- 
ents to  "isms"  ;  third,  jealousies  between  the  mother 
church  of  medicine  and  those  of  her  children  that 
wish  to  make  of  their  specialties  separate  professions ; 
fourth,  the  obstruction  from  vested  interests  that 
consider  themselves  threatened, — the  incorporated 
schools  that  have  some  capital  invested,  and  regard 
their  power  to  confer  a  diploma  operating  as  a  license 
to  practice  medicine  as  their  chief  stock  in  trade. 

The  condition  of  our  statute  books  to-day  is  this : 
they  contain  (1)  special  acts  incorporating  medical, 
pharmaceutical,  and  dental  schools,  with  here  and  there 
a  general  act  for  that  purpose ;  (2)  acts  incorporating 
medical  societies  of  physicians  and  of  sectarian  prac- 
titioners of  motley  nomenclature  ;  (3)  general  acts  regu- 
lating the  practice  of  physic  and  surgery  ;  (4)  general 
acts  regulating  the  practice  of  dentistry ;  (5)  similar 
acts  regulating  the  practice  of  pharmacy  ;  (6)  sanitary 
regulations  and  laws  creating  health  boards. 

This  jumble  is  itself  an  evil  and  an  efficient  cause 
of  the  propagation  of  false  ideas.  A  logical  law, 
which  will  of  itself  be  an  educator,  will  recognize  that 
the  principle  on  which  all  these  statutes  are  to  be  de- 


138  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

fended  is  that  already  indicated, — the  right  of  the 
State  to  protect  the  health  as  well  as  the  life  and  the 
property  of  the  citizen.  One  health  statute  will  then 
be  enacted,  and  a  responsible  board  created  that  will 
have  in  charge  the  arrangements  of  quarantine  and 
sanitation  and  also  the  licensing  of  medical  practition- 
ers of  every  sort ;  and  here  I  contend  that  the 
dentist  and  the  pharmacist,  thoroughly  accomplished 
in  their  calling,  are  both  medical  men,  and  that,  the 
sooner  they  are  so  recognized,  the  sooner  existing 
jealousies  as  to  them  will  die  out,  and  the  scientific 
character  of  the  profession  and  its  specialties  will  be 
raised.  The  student  of  medicine  and  pharmacy  must 
go  hand  in  hand  for  a  while  at  the  outset  of  their 
career.  The  former  goes  forward  to  the  battle  with 
disease.  The  latter  remains  behind  to  provide  suit- 
able ammunition.  They  are  both  fighting  in  the  same 
cause,  and  will  fight  much  better  if  each  recognizes  his 
fellowship  with  the  other.  It  is  equally  true  that  the 
dentist  is  a  specialist  in  medicine.  To  deny  to  these 
men  professional  standing  is  to  repeat  the  history  of 
the  past  and  to  create  discord  and  jealousy  among 
those  who  are  working  in  a  common  cause. 

Legislation  can  aid  in  the  education  of  all  these  fel- 
low-workers chiefly  by  vesting  the  licensing  power  in 
a  central  Board  of  Medical  Examiners,  and,  to  some 
extent,  under  the  diploma  standard :  (1)  by  fixing 
a  minimum  age  under  which  they  Avill  not  be  allowed 
to  practice  their  calling ;  (2)  by  requiring  of  each  of 
them  a  fixed  term  of  study  of  certainly  not  less  than 
tw^o  graded  years,  leaving  to  the  board,  where  created, 
the  care  of  details  ;  (3)  by  requiring  proof  by  examina- 


lEGISLATlOlS-   AND   MEDICAL   EDUCATION.      139 

tion  or  certificate  that  each  candidate  for  license  had 
studied  before  beginning  his  professional  course  at 
least  those  branches  of  a  general  education  in  which 
law  students  are  examined  in  this  State  before  they 
commence  their  legal  studies  ;  (4)  by  declaring  that  no 
medical  school — including  in  the  terms  schools  of 
dentistry,  pharmacy,  and  midwifery — shall  be  in- 
corporated by  special  act,  and  providing  a  general  law 
for  the  incorporation  of  such  schools  only  upon  proof 
made  of  the  possession  by  the  incorporators  of  suf- 
ficient capital — say  not  less  than  a  hundred  thousand 
dollars — and  teaching  plant  to  justify  the  belief  that 
the  school  will  be  capable  of  exercising  faithfully  its 
franchises.  Such  an  act  should  contain  stringent  pro- 
visions for  its  own  enforcement  and  for  the  forfeiture 
of  abused  charters.  How  useless  the  mere  enactment 
may  be  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  section  six  of  chapter 
114  of  the  ]^ew  York  Sessions  Laws  of  1853  contains  a 
general  provision  of  this  nature.  Nevertheless,  since 
its  passage,  some  six  or  more  medical  colleges  have 
been  incorporated  by  special  act  of  the  legislature; 
and  had  it  not  been  for  the  vetoes  of  Governors  Cleve- 
land and  Hill,  when  their  attention  was  called  to  this 
general  statute  by  the  medical  societies,  at  least  one  col- 
lege would  have  regained  by  special  act  its  charter  of 
which  the  courts  had  deprived  it.  No  greater  service 
can  be  rendered  to  the  cause  of  medical  education  by 
the  State  than  the  exercise  of  care  in  creating  medical 
schools,  and  holding  them  to  strict  responsibility 
when  created.  The  latter  will  never  be  done,  I  fear, 
except  when  the  laws  are  invoked  by  medical  societies. 
(5)  A  minimum  course  of  medical  study  should  be  pre- 


140  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

scribed,  in  which  a  grade  of  at  least  seventy  per  cent, 
should  be  attained  on  examination.  The  regulation  of 
all  details  of  examination  should  be  most  wisely  left 
to  the  board  of  examiners.  But  the  topics  in  which 
examinations  should  be  had  might  well  be  specified  in 
the  statute ;  and  I  incline  strongly  to  think  that  it 
would  be  most  wise  to  omit  any  examination  in  those 
obscure  topics  of  therapeutics  and  materia  medica, 
upon  which  all  medical  heresies  have  been  begotten 
by  unscientific  minds.  One  who  should  creditably 
pass  his  examinations  in  botany,  chemistry,  physics, 
anatomy,  surgery,  physiology,  hygiene,  diagnosis,  ob- 
stetrics, and  microscopies,  especially  if  his  clinical  ex- 
amination should  show  him  to  be  educated  in  a  true 
sense  to  observe  and  draw  sound  deductions  from  ob- 
servation, rather  than  crammed  like  a  parrot,  might 
well  be  trusted  to  form  his  own  conclusions  and  pursue 
his  own  studies  as  judgment  should  dictate  in  the  terra 
incognita  of  therapeutics. 

It  has  been  already  said,  but  it  cannot  be  repeated 
too  often,  that  the  law  has  nothing  to  do  with  medical 
theories.  The  utmost  it  can  do  successfully  is  to  pre- 
scribe that  none  shall  practice  medicine  except  persons 
educated  in  those  branches  of  science  that  all  admit 
are  essential  to  an  understanding  of  morbid  condi- 
tions of  our  species,  and  possessed  besides  of  a  fair 
general  education.  It  cannot  prohibit  tlie  practice  of 
sectarian  medicine  and  such  delusions  as  mind-cure 
and  Christian  Science,  for  this  would  be  an  assumption 
by  the  law  to  prescribe  what  system  of  healing  shall 
be  followed ;  and  it  might  as  reasonably  command — 
as,  indeed,  I  believe  it  does  in  Mormondom — that  all 


LEGISLATION   AND   MEDICAL   EDUCATION.      141 

the  sick  should  be  treated  by  anointing  with  oil  in 
conjunction  with  prayer  by  the  elders. 

If  a  man  who  has  passed  his  examinations  in  such 
branches  as  above  indicated  shall  conclude  to  adhere 
uniformly  in  practice  to  the  doctrine  of  similia  or  of 
contraria,  or  even  to  the  profundities  of  Mumbo 
Jumbo,  or  mind-cure,  the  law  cannot  prevent  him. 
For  his  errors,  he  will  be  liable  always  in  damages,  no 
matter  what  system  he  adopts ;  and,  with  that,  we 
must  be  content.  If  the  education  required  of  him 
does  not  keep  him  to  the  faith,  we  may  perhaps  find 
in  some  cases  that  his  departure  from  it  is  the  opening 
of  a  new  way  to  fresh  truth.  (6)  Finally,  the  law 
should  not  recognize  any  diploma  as  of  itself  conferring 
a  right  to  practice  medicine.  Even  if  the  possession  of 
such  a  document  should  be  required  as  an  antecedent 
to  examination  by  the  health  board,  it  should  not  be 
allowed  to  take  the  place  of  such  examination.  It  is 
to  the  interest  not  only  of  the  public,  but  of  every 
medical  college  of  high  standard,  that  the  diplomas  of 
what  have  become  known  as  "  diploma  mills  "  shall  be 
deprived  of  the  licensing  power,  which  is  their  sole  value. 

Any  scheme  of  medical  legislation  will  hereafter,  of 
course,  embrace  that  great  safeguard  against  impos- 
ture and  efficient  tracer  of  frauds,  the  system  of  regis- 
tration, whereunder  no  one  is  allowed  to  practice 
medicine  who  has  not  made  a  public  record  under 
oath  of  his  name,  origin,  and  credentials  for  license. 

Beyond  the  point  here  indicated,  it  would  not  be 
wise  for  legislation  to  go.  The  chief  desiderata  in  a 
good  law  are  brevity,  simplicity,  and  lack  of  detail. 
If  a  diploma  standard  is  to  be  maintained,  it  would 


142  CHRISTIAN    SCiENCi:. 

certainly  be  desirable  that  the  statute  should  provide 
that  only  diplomas  of  colleges  giving  graded  instruc- 
tion and  requiring  preliminary  examination  of  their 
matriculants  should  be  received  as  licenses. 

But  it  may  be  well  to  say  once  more  that  the  mere 
enactment  of  a  law  against  a  vicious  practice  will  be 
no  deterrent  to  the  transgressor,  and,  therefore,  of  no 
service  to  the  cause  of  education.  He  must  realize 
that  the  law  is  enforced  ;  and,  in  order  that  it  be  en- 
forced, somebody  must  be  charged  with  carrying  out 
its  provisions.  In  the  State  of  ^N^ew  York,  the  regular 
medical  societies  have  of  late  charged  themselves  with 
the  duty  of  executing  the  medical  act.  Such  acts 
have  been  upon  the  statute  book  for  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years.  But  prior  to  1880  they  had  fallen  into 
neglect,  largely  owing  to  the  clumsiness  with  which 
they  were  drafted.  In  that  year,  the  State  Medical 
Society  secured  the  passage  of  a  new  law,  and  in  1887 
of  a  codification  or  revision  of  all  the  medical  statutes ; 
but  the  law  in  this  State  is  yet  far  from  perfect,  and 
chiefly  for  the  reason  that  there  is  no  central  body 
having  control  of  its  execution.  The  most  that  the 
medical  societies  can  do  is  to  punish  those  who  prac- 
tice without  diplomas.  They  are  powerless  to  exercise 
any  supervision  over  those  granting  the  license.  In 
this  regard,  the  statute  of  the  State  of  Illinois  is  far 
more  efficient  than  ours ;  and  the  Health  Board  of 
that  State  has  entitled  itself  to  the  commendation  of  all 
who  are  informed  of  its  excellent  and  efficient  work. 

But  the  County  Society  of  New  York  has  done 
enough  to  show  that  even  a  poor  law  can  be  of  ad- 
vantage to  the  cause  of  medical  education.     The  ex- 


LEGISLATION   AND   MEDICAL   EDUCATION.      143 

ample  of  its  prosecutions  has  stirred  up  allied  societies 
to  action,  and  has  constantly  called  public  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  practice  of  quackery  is  not  safe 
within  its  jurisdiction.  Adopting  the  new  code  of 
ethics,  it  has  shown  conclusively  to  all  who  have 
watched  its  course  that  its  members  have  not  had  in 
mind  the  suppression  of  any  system  of  healing  the 
sick  only  because  they  disapproved  the  methods  of 
that  system.  It  has  recognized  that  the  utmost  limit 
to  which  the  law  can  properly  go  is  to  provide  that 
nobody  shall  practice  medicine  at  all,  by  which  term 
the  courts  understand  the  use  of  drugs  and  instru- 
ments, unless  he  has  the  slender  educational  qualifica- 
tion prescribed  by  the  statute.  If  possessed  of  that 
qualification,  the  society  concede  that  the  practitioner 
has  a  right  to  use  whatever  system  may  commend 
itself  to  his  understanding  or  lack  of  understanding. 

The  prejudices  and  jealousies  that  prevented  the 
passage  of  the  Examiners  Bills  have  been  already  al- 
luded to.  But,  although  those  bills  failed  to  become 
law,  nevertheless,  when  the  present  statute  incorpo- 
rating their  points  of  agreement  was  obtained  by  an 
alliance  of  all  parties,  a  distinct  advance  was  made,  in 
that  the  homeopaths  and  eclectics  were  convinced 
that,  whether  the  other  societies  agreed  or  not  with 
them  in  matters  of  practice,  they  were  willing  to  join 
hands  with  them  in  securing,  if  not  the  best  legisla- 
tion, at  least  the  best  possible  under  the  circumstances ; 
and  that  they  were  quite  capable  of  bringing  forward 
in  good  faith  a  bill  actually  what  it  appeared  to  be, 
and  not  secretly  designed  for  the  destruction  of 
schismatics.     And  it  is  very  safe  to  say  that  it  is  only 


144  CHEISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

a  question  now  of  agitation  of  public  and  professional 
opinion  that  is  necessary  in  the  State  of  New  York  to 
bring  about  such  legislation  as  will  obliterate  all  sects 
in  medicine,  not  indeed  by  harassing  the  individual 
practitioner  or  legislating  against  any  system  of  prac- 
tice, but  by  educating  the  public  mind  to  the  fact  that 
no  one  should  be  intrusted  with  the  practice  of  any 
system  who  has  not  a  fair  attainment  in  those  branches 
of  study  which  all  admit  must  be  necessary  to  any  one 
expecting  to  devote  himself  to  the  treatment  of  dis- 
ease ;  and  that  every  one  is  entitled  to  the  name  of 
physician  who  is  learned  in  his  science,  skilled  in  his 
art,  and  capable  in  his  profession  of  trying  all  things, 
holding  fast  what  is  true,  facing  bravely  the  errors  of 
others,  and  admitting  candidly  his  own,  and,  above 
all,  recognizing  the  possibility  of  honest  differences  of 
opinion,  which  can  be  settled  only  by  honest  investi- 
gation and  kindly  exposition.^ 

If  the  law  will  forbid  the  practice  of  medicine  to 
all  but  those  who  give  proof  of  a  fair  general  educa- 
tion and  reasonable  attainments  in  the  branches  of 
sciences  and  medical  study  as  to  which  there  are  no 
"  schools,"  it  will  do  all  that  can  be  asked.  Its  licen- 
tiates will  be  too  intelligent  to  indulge,  as  a  class,  in 
vagaries,  sectarian  medicine  will  disappear  or  dwindle 
to  insignificance,  and  the  physician  will  be  free  to  fol- 
low where  the  torch  of  Truth  lights  the  way. 

1  Shortly  after  this  paper  was  read,  a  system  of  State  Examination  was 
established  and  still  remains  in  New  York.  In  1893  the  practice  of  med- 
icine, dentistry,  pharmacy,  etc.,  were  regulated  by  one  Public  Health 
Law.  The  suggestions  of  this  paper  have  been  adopted.  The  medical 
schools  require  a  graded  course  of  three  or  four  years,  and  preliminary 
education.  The  standard  of  medical  education  and  the  value  of  the 
diploma  have  been  greatly  advanced. 


YI. 

THE  EVOLUTIOIS^  OF  THE  APOTHECARY.^ 

The  expression  by  Mr.  Fox  in  an  after-dinner 
speech,  when  on  his  special  mission  to  St.  Petersburg, 
of  a  patriotic  belief  that  the  "  American  language " 
was  destined  to  become  the  universal  speech,  excited 
comment  and  curiosity.  Matter-of-fact  Britons  re- 
sented this  appropriation  of  their  mother-tongue  as  an 
application  of  cuckoo  methods  to  linguistics.  Polyglot 
Kussians  yearned  to  acquire  a  new  dialect. 

Apothecary  is  one  of  those  words  in  the  use  of  which 
American  differs  from  English  and  resembles  Scotch  ; 
for  with  us,  as  in  Scotland,  prior  to  the  passage  of  the 
pharmaceutical  acts,  if  not  now — it  denotes  one  whose 
business,  of  a  trading  nature,  consists  strictly  in  sell- 
ing, compounding,  and  dispensing  drugs,  chemicals, 
and  kindred  wares.  The  introduction  into  the  stock- 
in-trade  of  soda-water,  cigars,  and  confectionery,  shows 
a  tendency  of  the  business  to  revert,  even  in  great 
cities,  to  its  type  ;  for  grocers  and  poticaries  were  for- 
merly a  single  brotherhood,  and  were  first  incorporated 
into  one  worshipful  society.  Every  grocer  had  an 
hT.od-qKTi^  by  virtue  of  which  he  was  a  poticary. 

In  the  fourth  year  of  his  pedantic  and  witch-hating 
reign,  James  I.  granted  a  charter  to  "  The  Ward  ours 
and  Fellowship  of  the  Mystery  of  Grocers  of  the  City 

>  New  York  Medical  Record,  Sept.  Ii,  1886. 

145 


146  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

of  London,"  making  of  them  a  body  corporate.  But, 
as  often  happens  where  a  child  of  his  works  secures  a 
recognized  social  status  for  his  family,  the  lesser,  or 
junior,  portion  of  this  Mystery  soon  felt  itself  finer 
and  more  mysterious  than  the  entire  fellowship. 
Moreover,  the  blending  of  trades  had  its  own  incon- 
veniences, easily  conceivable  to  one  who  has  been  in 
rural  districts  where  it  still  obtains.  Our  own  Galen, 
who  is  heroic,  once  prescribed  a  very  drastic  remedy, 
and  a  combined  haberdasher-grocer-apothecary  of 
Westchester  essayed  to  supply  it.  But  the  unusual 
dose,  which  "  no  one  out  here  has  ever  took,"  drove 
him  to  a  dispensatory,  where  for  fifteen  minutes  he 
groped  befogged,  searching  if  a  city  man  had  anything 
in  common  with  the  ostrich.  Only  fear  of  not  selling 
the  drug  decided  him  to  risk  decreasing  the  population.^ 

Perhaps  episodes  of  this  kind  as  well  as  a  realization 
of  the  need  of  special  care  and  training  for  the  safe 
dispensing  of  medicines  induced  the  "  well-beloved 
Theodore  de  Mayerne  and  Henry  Atkins,"  his  "  dis- 
creet and  faithful  physicians,"  to  make  those  represen- 
tations to  James  that  induced  him,  in  the  thirteenth 
year  of  his  reign,  to  separate  the  apothecaries  from 
the  grocers  after  nine  years  of  union,  and  grant  the 
former  a  separate  charter  under  the  corporate  name  of 
"  The  Master,  Wardens,  and  Society  of  the  Art  and 
Mystery  of  Apothecaries  of  the  City  of  London." 

But  although  it  was  through  the  intercession  of 
physicians  that  the  apothecary,  thus  freed  from  the 

1  Thus  Romeo  argued  with  his  apothecary,  hesitating  to  sell  poison  con- 
trary to  law  :  "  The  world  affords  no  law  to  make  thee  rich;  then  be  not 
poor,  but  break  it  and  take  this." — Act  v.,  Scene  I. 


THE   EVOLUTION    OF   THE   APOTHECARY.        147 

environment  of  grocerdoin,  was  able  to  set  up  his  own 
m^^stery,  Ave  may  be  very  sure  that  the  said  Theodore 
and  Henry  never  intended  bis  evolution  to  go  on  until 
he  should  become,  as  he  now  is  in  England,  a  general 
practitioner  of  medicine.  On  the  contrar}^,  the  new 
charter  provided  that  the  rights  of  the  College  of 
Physicians  should  not  be  abridged,  that  the  college 
should  exercise  a  certain  supervision  over  the  company, 
and  that  the  apothecaries  should  consult  the  physicians 
on  the  use  and  properties  of  medicine.^  The  exclusive 
privilege  granted  to  the  apothecaries  by  their  charter 
was  this :  "  J^o  person,  free  of  the  Grocers',  or  any 
other  mystery  in  London,  except  those  of  the  Apoth- 
ecaries' Company,  shall  keep  any  apothecary's  shop, 
or  make,  compound,  administer,  sell,  send  out,  adver- 
tise, or  offer  for  sale  any  medicines,  distilled  waters, 
compounded  chemical  oils,  decoctions,  syrups,  con- 
serves, eclegmas,  electuaries,  medical  condiments,  pills, 
powders,  lozenges,  oils,  unguents,  or  plasters ;  or  oth- 
erwise in  any  way  practice  the  faculty  of  an  apoth- 
ecary," etc.,  under  a  penalty  of  £5.  The  only  limita- 
tions upon  this  power  were  the  said  provision  pre- 
serving the  rights  of  the  College  of  Physicians,  whose 
licentiates  might,  under  the  statute,  dispense  medicine 
in  their  own  practice,  and  the  further  provision  that 
"approved  chirurgeons "  might  enjoy  their  art  "as 
much  as  belongeth  and  appertaineth  to  the  composi- 
tion and  application  of  outer  salves  or  medicines  only, 

1"  Proviso  semper  quod  pro  tot  et  tal'  ordinationibus  qu£e  medicamenta 
aut  compositiones  et  usum  earundem  concernent'  advocabunt  de  tempore 
in  tempus  Prsesidentem  et  quatuor  censores,  seu  Gubernat',  Colleg'  &  Com- 
munital'  Medicorum  London,  aut  alios  jNIedicos  Preesidentem  proedict, 
jiominand'  pro  avisamento  in  hac  parte."     Charter,  May  30,  Jac.  i. 


148  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

SO  that  they  do  not  vend  or  expose  to  sale  to  others 
such  salves  or  remedies,  according  to  the  common  man- 
ner of  the  apothecaries  of  London."  But  these  pro- 
visions were  not  restrictions,  in  any  proper  sense,  upon 
the  monopoly  of  the  trade.  Physicians  and  surgeons 
could  only  dispense  medicine  in  their  own  practice ; 
they  could  not  deal  in  it ;  and  it  would  seem  that  this 
statement  of  the  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  under 
the  title  "  Apothecary  "  :  "  The  members  of  this  society 
do  not  possess  and  never  have  possessed  any  exclusive 
power  to  deal  in  or  sell  drugs,"  is  incorrect  as  a  legal 
proposition. 

The  broad  charter  obtained  for  the  physicians  from 
Henry  YIII.  by  Cardinal  Wolsey,  giving  their  college 
the  licensing  power  theretofore  vested  in  the  clergy 
alone,  which  charter  Mary  confirmed,  made  the  College 
of  Physicians  supreme  in  the  whole  field  of  medicine. 
It  could  license  persons  to  examine  and  advise  the  sick, 
write  prescriptions,  dispense  drugs,^  and  perform  sur- 
gical operations  ;  ^  whereas  surgeons  and  apothecaries 
were  narrowly  limited  in  their  respective  functions. 
Whenever  an  apothecary  or  surgeon  attempted  to  pre- 
scribe for  the  sick  he  stood  in  the  peril  of  the  law,  and 
the  college  was  not  slow  to  punish  him.  Thus  in  1602 
one  Jenkins,  a  member  of  the  College  of  Surgeons, 
did  "give  judgment  on  urines  and  undertake  cures." 

1  See  the  case  of  the  Attorney-General  ex  rel  Apoth.  Co.  v.  The  Royal 
College  of  Physicians  (L.  J.,  N.  S.,  Ch.  30,  757),  infra. 

2  32  Hen.  VIII.,  C.  40,  3,  enlarging  the  original  charier  of  the  college, 
recites  that  the  science  of  physic  "  cloth  comprehend,  include,  and  contain 
the  knowledge  o.f  surgery  as  a  special  member  and  part  of  the  same," 
with  which  statement  Dr.  Davies,  in  his  pamphlet  on  medical  legislation, 
compares  this  saying  of  Celsus :  **  Illiid  ante  oinnia  scire  convenit,  quod 
oinnes  inedicin<E  partes  inexce  sunt,  tit  ex  toto  separari  non  possint." 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  APOTHECARY.    149 

The  Censors  of  the  College  of  Physicians  did  then 
cause  his  arrest,  and  his  counsel  obtained,  thereupon, 
a  Avrit  of  Habeas  Corpus ;  but  on  the  return  of  the 
writ  it  appeared,  in  answer  to  the  questions  of  Sir 
John  Popham,  Lord  Chief  Justice,  that  Jenkins  could 
not  justify  his  practice  by  the  college  seal,  but  could 
only  plead :  "  I  practiced  as  a  surgeon,  and  in  that  art 
the  use  of  inward  remedies  is  often  necessary." 
Whereupon  Sir  John  sent  him  back  to  durance,  saying 
substantially,  as  Goodall  sums  him  up  in  his  history  of 
the  college :  "  (1)  There  is  no  sufficient  license  without 
the  college  seal.  (2)  No  surgeon,  as  a  surgeon,  may 
practice  physic  ;  no,  not  for  any  disease,  though  it  be 
the  great  pox."  And  Sir  John  then  further  laid  down 
six  other  propositions  most  disagreeable  to  Jenkins  and 
like  sinners,  but  of  exceeding  comfort  to  the  college. 

Before  the  incorporation  of  the  College  of  Physi- 
cians the  clergy  were  the  source  of  license  to  practice 
physic.  Successive  bulls  of  the  popes  had  failed  to 
toss  the  priesthood  out  of  this  pleasant  field  of  science. 
The  college,  as  a  corporate  entity,  seemed  not  only  to 
have  inherited  the  pride  that  marked  the  ecclesiastical 
body  and  caused  the  angels  to  fall,  but  also  to  have 
manifested  it  by  self -mutilation,  after  the  fashion  of 
religious  enthusiasts  from  the  time  of  Atys  to  our  own 
day.  It  was  astraddle  the  bladder  of  professional 
pride  that  the  apothecary  floated  on  a  silvery  sea  of 
shillings,  sixpences,  and  half-crowns,  to  the  humble 
but  lucrative  position  of  counter-prescriber  and  gen- 
eral practitioner,  while  the  physicians,  by  their  own 
acts,  were  impotent  to  stop  him. 

The  surgeons  had  been  originally  barbers  and  smiths, 


150  CHEISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

i.  e.,  artficers ;  the  apothecaries  had  been  grocers,  and 
still  were  tradesmen ;  ^  so  that  the  physicians,  not- 
withstanding their  charter  contemplated  that  they 
should  dispense  medicines  and  treat  wounds  and 
sores,  enacted  by-laws  forbidding  admission  to  their 
body  to  any  who  compounded  or  supplied  medicine 
for  gain,  *'  surgeons,  drug-compounders,  or  any  other 
artificers  of  that  sort,  lest,  perchance,  if  such  men  be 
admitted  into  the  college  we  may  seem  not  to  have 
sufficiently  consulted  our  OAvn  dignity  or  the  honor  of 
our  country's  universities,  w^hich,  however,  we  ought, 
and  we  always  desire,  to  attend  with  the  deepest 
veneration."  They  decreed  expulsion  to  any  member 
of  their  college  so  far  forgetting  himself  as  to  join 
the  College  of  Surgeons  or  Company  of  Apothecaries,^ 
and  refused  to  license  members  of  either  body  who 
did  not  first  renounce  membership  therein.^  The  re- 
fusal of  physicians  to  dispense  even  their  own  medi- 
cines ;  thus  necessitating  a  fee  for  advice  only,  and 
the  expense  and  inconvenience  to  patients,  especially 
in  the  country,  of  calling  on  the  physician  and  apothe- 
cary, and  possibly  the  surgeon,  for  a  single  case,  were 
sufficient  reasons  why,  in  the  course  of  time,  the 
vender  of  drugs  came  to  be  consulted  as  to  their  use. 
Here  was  the  apothecary's  opportunity,  especially  if 
he  had,  as  was  commonly  the  case,  a  surgeon's  license 
also.     He  was  not  bound  to  charge  a  specified  fee, 

•  They  are  so  rated  to-day  in  the  Bankrupt  Act. 

5  See  By-Laws  of  College  of  Physicians,  as  recast  in  1687. 

3'*Antequam  quispiam  in  permissorum  numerum  admittatur,  si  forte 
chirurgorum  aut  phannacopolaruni  sodalitio  olim  donatus  fuerit,  sodalitii 
istius  privilegiis  omnibus  renunciet,"  etc.  By-laws  College  of  Physicians 
1828.     See  Attorney-General  v.  Royal  College  of  Physicians,  infra. 


T^HE   EVOLtJTlOJS^    OF   THE   APOTHECARY.        151 

and  the  average  man,  though  unwilling  to  pay  for 
medical  advice,  is  ready  enough  to  purchase  a  nos- 
trum. We  love  to  be  humbugged  in  gross  ways.  A 
remedy  is  tangible  value  for  money  ;  if  the  swallow- 
ing of  it  is  followed  by  considerable  discomfort,  the 
buyer  is  all  the  surer  that  it  is  efficacious.  Advice, 
especially  if  consonant  with  common  sense,  seems  less 
valuable.  If  a  wise  physician  should  prescribe  exer- 
cise and  abstinence  from  rum  to  a  victim  of  one  of 
the  commonest  forms  of  "  malaria,"  his  fee  would  be 
paid  grudgingly  by  one  willmg  to  spend  cheerfully  a 
tenth  of  his  income  in  Golden  Preparations  and  Cer- 
tain Ague  Cures,  while  keeping  up,  at  considerable 
expense,  the  cause  of  his  symptoms.  So  it  came  about 
that  the  apothecaries,  unmindful  of  any  gratitude 
they  might  owe  to  the  memory  of  those  faithful  and 
discreet  physicians  who  assisted  their  society  into  the 
world,  and  regardless  of  the  limitations  of  their 
charter,  fell  to  prescribing  over  their  counters,  and 
from  that  proceeded  to  visiting  the  sick.  Let  us  hope 
that  one  cause  of  their  success  in  gaining  patients,  as 
set  out  by  one  Doctor  Murett,  in  1669,  in  his  lamenta- 
tion over  their  encroachments  on  the  privileges  of 
physicians,  was  less  important  than  he  seems  to  have 
thought  it,  for  he  says  that  physicians  unawares  had 
been  instructing  apothecaries  in  their  science  by 
"  sending  them  to  visit  their  patients  to  give  them  the 
best  account  they  could  of  the  state  of  their  health 
and  effect  of  their  medicines,  and  of  late  years  taking 
them  with  them  on  their  visits,"  so  that  during  the 
plague  of  1661,  "  most  of  the  physicians  leing  out  of 
town^^^  the  apothecaries  were  enabled  to  "take  upon 


152  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

them  the  whole  practice  of  medicine."  ^  This  would 
imply  that  the  physicians  of  the  period  were  not  only 
negligent  of  their  duty  in  fair  times,  but  that  they 
fled  their  posts  in  time  of  danger,  a  charge  savoring 
more  of  dyspepsia  than  of  truth. 

Whatever  the  causes  were,  the  encroachments  were 
made  and  punished  during  the  period  between  the 
chartering  of  the  company  and  the  year  1703,  when 
the  House  of  Lords  finally  settled  it  in  the  case  of 
William  Kose  v.  College  of  Physicians,  that  an 
apothecary  might  prescribe  his  own  remedies  as  well 
as  sell  them.  This  case  is  worth  considering,  for  it 
was  the  last  important  step  in  the  progress  of  the 
apothecary  toward  his  present  status  as  a  general 
practitioner  of  medicine.  The  facts  were  these  :  Wil- 
liam Rose  being  an  apothecar}^,  and  John  Scale, 
butcher,  a  sick  man,  the  said  Scale  did  send  for  the 
said  Rose,  w^ho  thereupon  coming,  did  shake  his  head 
and  look  as  wise  as  the  whole  Faculty,  at  Avhich  being 
much  comforted,  the  thrifty  butcher  did  ask  the 
apothecary  to  send  him  something  for  his  cure ; 
whereupon  the  said  Rose,  not  taking  advice  of  any 
physician,  did  send  some  boluses  to  said  Scale ;  charg- 
ing therefor,  but  not  for  advice.  The  case  does  not 
state  the  effect  of  the  boluses,  nor  is  it  important ;  for 
whether  the  patient  was  killed  or  cured  was  not 
material  to  the  proposition  of  law,  that  it  was  alike 
contrary  to  the  form  of  the  statute  for  an  apothecary 
to  cure  or  kill.  There  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
any  doubt  in  the  minds  of  the  judges  when  the  Col- 

1  Cited  from  Dr.  More's  Outline  of  Pharmacy  in  Ireland,  in  West.  Rev, 
April,  1858. 


1:he  evolution  of  the  aIpothecary.      153 

lege  of  Physicians  brought  Eose  up  with  a  round  turn 
for  this  his  performance.  The  case  was  argued  several 
times— for  Kose,  as  the  result  shows,  was  pertinacious 
—but  the  court,  having  true  legal  respect  for  statutes, 
said,  unanimously,  yet  with  a  bit  of  sting  in  the  tail 
of  their  judgment:  "The  making  up  and  compound- 
ing medicines  is  the  business  of  an  apothecary,  but  the 
judging  what  is  proper  for  the  cure,  and  advising  what 
to  take  for  the  purpose  is  the  business  of  a  physician ; 
therefore,  let  the  distemper  be  what  it  will,  the  pre- 
scribing and  advising  what  is  fit  for  it  is  the  business 
of  a  physician,  though  without  a  fee ;  but  that  rarely 
happens,"  and  it  was  unanimously  agreed  that  the 
practice  of  physic  in  the  meaning  of  the  statute  con- 
sisted : 

"  (1)  In  judging  of  the  disease  and  its  nature  from 
the  constitution  of  the  patient,  and  many  other  cir- 
cumstances. 

"  (2)  In  judging  of  the  fittest  and  properest  remedy 
for  the  disease. 

*'  (3)  In  directing  or  ordering  the  application  of  the 
remedy  to  the  disease ;  and  that  the  proper  business 
of  an  apothecary  is  to  make  and  compound  or  prepare 
the  prescriptions  of  the  doctor  pursuant  to  his  direc- 
tions ;  and  it  was  agreed  that  the  defendant's  taking 
upon  himself  to  send  physic  to  a  patient,  as  proper  for 
his  distemper,  without  taking  ought  for  his  pains,  is 
plainly  a  taking  upon  himself  to  judge  of  the  disease 
and  fitness  of  remedy,  as  also  of  the  executive  or  di- 
rectory part."  ^ 

I3  Salk,  17;  6  Mod.,  44.  Contrast  this  with  the  definition  of  the 
modern  New  York  case,  Smith  v.  Lane,  that  makes  the  administration  of 
drugs  and  medicines,  or  the  use  of  instruments  the  sole  test  of  medical 
practice. 


154  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

The  appeal  being  taken  to  the  House  of  Lords,  it 
was  argued  for  Kose :  ^ 

"  That  the  consequences  of  affirming  the  judgment 
would  be  to  ruin  all  apothecaries,  for  in  that  event 
they  could  not  follow  their  calling  without  the  license 
of  a  physician ; 

"  That  constant  usage  and  practice  shows  that  sell- 
ing a  few  lozenges  or  a  small  electuary  to  any  person 
asking  a  remedy  for  a  cold,  or  in  other  ordinary  or 
common  cases  where  the  medicines  had  a  known  and 
certain  effect,  where  no  fee  was  taken,  could  not  be 
deemed  practice  of  physic  ;  ^ 

"  That  such  affirmance  would  give  physicians  a  mo- 
nopoly of  practice  to  the  great  harm  of  the  public ; 
for  it  would  lay  a  heavy  tax  on  the  nobility  and  gen- 
try, who,  in  the  slightest  cases  and  even  for  their  com- 
mon servants^  could  not  have  medicine  without  con- 
sulting and  feeing  a  member  of  the  college  ;  it  would 
deprive  the  poor  of  any  advice ;  it  would  be  prejudi- 
cial to  those  suffering  accident  and  taken  sick  in  the 
night  who  send  for  an  apothecary,  who  would  risk  the 
penalty  if  he  applied  the  least  remedy." 

For  the  college  it  was  argued  that : 

"  By  several  orders  of  the  college  its  members  Avere 
enjoined  to  treat  the  poor  gratis,  and  to  visit  them  at 
their  houses  ; 

"  That  when  it  was  observed  that  these  orders  were 
defeated  partially  by  the  high  price  charged  by  the 
apothecaries  for  medicine,  the  college  erected  dispen- 
saries in  towns,  where  free  patients  could  get  medi- 
cine at  one-third  less  than  apothecar3^-prices ; 

"That  in  emergencies,  not  only  apothecaries,  but 
any  one  else,  might  relieve  his  neighbor,  but  this  was 
no  reason  why  apothecaries  should  practice  at  their 
leisure ; 

15  Bro.  Pari.  Rep.,  553  (Tomlinson's  ed.), 

2  Compare  Apothecaries'  Co,  v.  Nottingham,  infra. 


l^HE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  APOTHECARY.   155 

"  That  in  light  indispositions  the  patient  generally 
prescribed  for  himself,  and  the  apothecary  might  law- 
fully put  up  the  medicine  ; 

*'  That  the  most  dangerous  diseases  begin  with  light 
symptoms,  and  the  apothecary  is  not  bred  to  detect 
tliem ;  moreover,  he  is  likely  to  sell  his  drugs  plenti- 
fully, and  if  he  makes  a  mistake  in  diagnosis,  to  cause 
great  harm  in  what  might  have  been  remedied  by 
proper  treatment."  ^ 

In  spite  of  these  arguments  the  Lords  reversed  the 
unanimous  judgment  of  the  Queen's  Bench.  How  the 
vote  sto.od  does  not  appear,  nor  are  the  reasons  from 
which  the  conclusion  was  drawn  given.  Whether  the 
Lord  Chancellor,  sitting  alone  in  solemn  majesty,  de- 
cided the  question,  or  whether  the  lay  Lords  were 
affrighted  at  the  prospect  of  having  to  employ  a  phy- 
sician, as  well  as  buy  physic,  for  their  common  serv- 
ants, we  cannot  know.  What  is  certain  is  that  the 
judges  were  reversed  ;  and  it  was  from  that  time  on 
settled  in  England  that  an  apothecary  may  prescribe 
as  well  as  sell  his  own  drugs.  Two  questions  re- 
mained open :  Whether  an  apothecary  could  recover, 
in  an  action  at  law,  fees  for  medical  advice,^  or  write 
a  prescription  for  medicine  not  dispensed  by  him.^ 

In  1815  the  Apothecaries'  Act  (55  Geo.  III.,  C.  194) 
and  in  1825  an  act  (6  Geo.  lY.,  C.  133)  amendatory  of 

1  The  opticians  of  to  day  argue  in  like  manner  against  the  oculists. 

2  A  recovery  may  be  had  now  for  both  medicine  and  advice  ;  but  if  the 
jury  think  the  charge  for  the  former  sufficiently  great  to  include  a  fee  for 
the  latter,  they  may  so  find.  Toune  v.  Lady  Gresley,  3  C.  and  P.,  581 ; 
Handey   v.    Henson,  4   C.  and   P.,   iio;  Morgan   v.  Hallen,  8  Ad.  and 

E.,  119- 

3  This  is  still  meat  for  lawyers.  But  it  is  certain  that  although  under 
the  Apothecaries'  Act,  an  apothecary  must  compound  a  qualified  physi- 
cian's prescription,  he  is  not  bound  to  compound  one  written  by  a  fellow- 
apothecary. 


156  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

it,  were  passed,  revising  and  confirming  the  ancient 
charter  of  the  company.  At  this  time  the  state  of 
general  medical  education  in  Great  Britain  was  de- 
plorable. The  case  of  Kose  had  established  the  right 
of  an  apothecary,  Avith  no  other  instruction  than  what 
he  might  have  picked  up  in  his  apprenticeship  behind 
the  counter,  to  practice  medicine.  The  powers  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  appear  to  have  been  exercised 
rather  too  often  against  competent  men,  including 
graduates  of  the  Scotch  and  Irish  universities,  and 
even  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  as  in  Bonham's  case, 
and  too  infrequently  against  veritable  quacks  and  im- 
postors. It  was  no  simple  matter  to  get  the  license 
of  the  college,  and  yet  unlawful  for  the  best-trained 
man  to  practice  in  London  without  it.  The  physi- 
cians seem  to  have  forgotten  that  a  charter,  such  as 
theirs,  has  no  other  raison  d'etre  than  the  benefit  to 
accrue  to  the  public  from  the  creation  of  a  class  of 
skilled  medical  men  and  the  weeding  out  of  the  igno- 
rant and  inept.  There  was  a  little  too  much  of  the 
spirit  of  trades-unionism  in  their  enforcement  of  the 
law,  and  a  too  feeble  pursuance  of  the  object  of  their 
charter  as  recited  in  its  preamble.^  The  practice  of 
medicine  had  fallen  to  a  very  considerable  extent  into 
the  hands  of  quacks  and  incompetent  apothecaries, 
while  competent  men  were  hampered  by  artificial  re- 

1  "  Cum  regii  officii  nostri  munus  arbitremur  ditionis  nostroe  hominum 
felicitati  onini  ratione  consulere  ;  id  autem  vel  inipriniis  fore,  si  iniprob- 
orum  conatibus  tempestive  occuramus,  apprime  necessarium  duximus 
improborum  quoque  hominum  qui  medicinam  magro  avaritios  sure  causa, 
quam  ullius  bonre  conscientioe  fiducia,  profitebuntur,  unde  rudi  et  cretuloe 
plebi  plurima  oriantur,  audaciam  compescere,"  etc.,  of  the  charter  of  the 
Apothecary  Company;  the  act  of  3  Hen.  VIII.,  C.  xi;  of.  the  revisers' 
notes  to  Ch.  xviii.  of  the  N.  Y.  Rev.  Stats. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  APOTHECARY.   l57 

strictions.  The  company,  thus  freshly  reorganized, 
set  themselves  about  remedying  this  evil.  The  right 
of  apothecaries  to  prescribe  being  established,  the 
company  licensing  them  now  recognized  that  the  right 
to  advise  implied  the  duty  of  care  and  wisdom  in  ad- 
vice to  which  medical  training  and  instruction  were 
prerequisites.  They  accordingly  required  candidates 
for  their  license  to  stand  successfully  examinations  in 
chemistry,  materia  medica  and  therapeutics,  botany, 
anatomy,  and  physiology,  and  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine. The  effect  was  that  great  benefit  accrued  from 
the  act ;  and  this  was  frankly  admitted  by  the  physi- 
cians who  at  first  disapproved  of  it.^  Another  effect 
of  the  act  was  to  increase  greatly  the  number  of 
licentiates  of  Apothecaries'  Hall  as  compared  with 
the  college.  In  the  decade  from  1848  to  1858,  the 
year  of  the  passage  of  the  Medical  Act,  the  licentiates 
of  the  College  of  Surgeons  numbered  4,915,  many  of 
whom  were,  of  course,  apothecaries  ;  Apothecaries' 
Hall  licensed  2,823,  and  the  College  of  Physicians  only 
242.  These  statistics  appear  to  have  opened  some- 
what the  eyes  of  the  physicians,  and  shown  them  that 
the  framers  of  their  broad  charter  were  wiser,  per- 
haps, in  their  generation,  than  were  they  who  drafted 
the  by-laws.  But  it  is  a  hard  thing  to  admit  errors ; 
so  that  the  college  did  not  entirely  relax  its  old  rules 
to  meet  the  new  crisis ;  but  in  1860,  two  years  after 

1  Thus  Sir  Henry  Halford  testified  before  a  Parliamentary  committee : 
"  I  must  do  the  apothecaries  the  justice  to  say  that  they  have  executed 
that  act  extremely  well,  and  that  the  character  of  that  branch  of  the  pro- 
fession has  been  amazingly  raised  since  they  have  had  that  authority.  I 
only  do  them  justice  when  I  state  that,  though  I  was  very  much  against 
it  in  the  first  instance."     Cited  in  West.  Rev.  April,  1858. 


158  Christian  science. 

the  passage  of  the  Medical  Act,  while  still  preserving 
in  the  by-laws  the  provisions  prohibiting  membership 
or  fellowship  in  the  college  to  any  one  engaged  in 
trade,  or  the  practice  of  physic  or  surgery  in  partner- 
ship, or  engaging  to  share  profits  on  medicines  with  a 
chemist  or  other  person,  they  nevertheless  resolved  to 
license  a  class  of  persons  privileged  to  compound  and 
dispense  medicine  in  their  own  practice.  Thereupon 
the  apothecaries,  who  had  come  to  believe  themselves 
alone  entitled  to  this  privilege,  filed  an  information 
and  bill  by  the  Attorney-General  ^  against  the  college, 
praying  that  defendants  should  be  restrained  from 
thus  amending  their  by-laws  and  granting  such  li- 
censes. Mr.  Roundell  Palmer  and  others  represented 
the  college,  and  the  case  coming  on  in  April,  1861, 
Wood,  Y.  C,  in  an  exhaustive  opinion,  sustained  the 
right  of  the  college  under  their  charter  to  grant  li- 
censes in  the  entire  field  of  physic. 

^Ye  have  thus  seen  the  English  apothecary  not  only 
evolve  from  a  grocer  into  a  general  practitioner,  but 
even  acquire  the  assurance  to  attempt  the  curtailment 
of  the  chartered  rights  of  the  physicians.  But  it  is  not 
to  be  supposed  that  the  apothecary,  in  our  sense  of 
the  word,  that  is  to  say,  the  chemist  and  druggist,  or, 
to  use  the  English  statutory  term,  the  pharmaceutical 
chemist,^  is  entitled  to  prescribe  his  drugs  in  England. 
The  contrary  has  been  held  in  two  very  recent  prose- 
cutions brought  by  the  Apothecaries'  Company  con- 
tending that  what  was  very  good  reasoning  in  1703  to 
establish  the  right  of  Apothecary  Rose  to  prescribe, 

^  Attorney-General  v.   Royal  College  of  Physicians.     L.  J.,  N,  S.,  Ch. 

30.  757- 

■^  It  is  well  settled  in  New  York  that  an  apothecary  or  druggist  cannot 
prescribe  without  a  physician's  license. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  APOTHECARY.   159 

was  very  poor  logic  in  our  day  when  applied  to 
Chemists  Nottingham  and  Harrison.  These  two  cases 
show  very  clearly  the  law  applicable  to  counter-pre- 
scribing, as  it  has  always  been  laid  down  by  the  law 
courts,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  They  merit, 
therefore,  full  exposition. 

In  the  Apothecaries'  Company  v.  Nottingham,^ 
tried  in  January  27,  1876,  before  Baron  Bramwell,  it 
appeared  that  the  defendant,  although  only  a  chemist 
himself,  was  in  partnership  with  a  medical  practitioner 
duly  qualified,  to  whom  he  always  referred  such  pa- 
tients as  in  his  opinion  were  seriously  ill.  It  did  not 
appear  that  he  ever  left  his  shop  to  prescribe,  but  it 
was  admitted  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  giving  ad- 
vice over  the  counter  in  what  he  considered  trivial 
cases.  In  charging  the  jury  the  learned  Baron  said : 
"  You  have  to  find  a  true  verdict  on  the  evidence,  v)hether 
you  like  the  act  or  not?  Perhaps  you  may  think  that 
a  person  has  a  right  to  practice  as  he  likes,  whether 
qualified  or  not ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  you  may  think 
that,  whereas  the  poorer  classes  have  no  opportunity 
of  judging  of  or  of  ascertaining  the  qualifications  of 
the  persons  to  whom  they  resort  for  medical  advice, 
the  legislature  should  require  such  persons  to  possess 
proper  skill  and  knowledge,  and  to  obtain  a  certificate 
thereof.  No  doubt  some  people  like  to  go  to  unquali- 
fied practitioners  so  as  to  get  advice  cheap ;  but  there 
is  the  law,  and  we  have  to  observe  it.  If  you  think 
this  man  has  '  acted  or  practiced  as  an  apothecary,' 

1  .^4  L.  T.  R.,  N.  S.,  76. 

2  bur  italics.  There  are  similar  New  York  cases  affecting  persons 
practicing  medicine  under  the  guise  of  selling  drugs. 


IGO  CHEISTIAN    SCIE^^CE. 

then  you  must  find  your  verdict  for  the  plaintiff.  In- 
deed, I  feel  some  little  difficulty  in  putting  the  case  to 
you,  for  on  the  defendant's  own  admission  he  says  he 
prescribed,  and  that  if  a  person  brought  a  child  to  him 
suffering  from,  say  diarrhoea,  and  asked  what  was 
good  for  it,  he  gave  the  medicine ;  if,  however,  the 
case  was  serious,  he  sent  the  doctor.  Surely  that  is 
acting  and  practicing  as  an  apothecary  within  the 
meaning  of  the  act  ?  "  ^  Still  more  recently,  in  July, 
18T9,  this  whole  subject  was  carefully  and  learnedly 
considered  by  Judge  Matteran,  Q.  C,  in  the  case  of 
the  Apothecaries'  Company  v.  Harrison.^  The  facts 
proved  were  that  Julia  Caddick  went  to  the  shop  of 
defendant,  a  chemist,  said  she  was  suffering  from 
weakness,  and  asked  for  something  to  relieve  her. 
Defendant  asked  the  cause  of  her  weakness ;  she  an- 
swered that  it  was  left  on  her  after  confinement.  He 
felt  her  pulse,  looked  at  her  tongue,  and  asked  her  to 
describe  how  she  felt.  She  did  so.  He  made  up  a 
medicine  and  charged  only  one  shilling.  Defendant's 
council  urged  in  his  behalf  every  argument  brought 
forward  for  Kose,  whose  case,  as  we  have  seen,  settled 
the  right  of  the  apothecaries  to  prescribe.  He  also 
tried  to  distinguish  the  chemist  from  the  apothecary, 
by  the  criterion  that  the  former  could  only  practice  in 
the  shop,  while  the  latter  might  visit ;  but  the  court 
said  that  the  apothecary's  right  to  visit  was  not  clear 
as  a  legal  proposition.  Judgment  was  given  for  the 
company  plaintiff,  and  the  judge,  citing  the  opinions 

>  See  Mr.  Justice  Creswell's  distinction  between  chemists,  surgeons,  and 
apothecaries,  in  Apoth.  Co.  v.  Lotinga,  2  M.  and  R.,  500, 
2  67  L.  T.,  232. 


THE   EYOLTJTIOIS-   OF  THE   APOTHECARY.        161 

of  Bramwell  and  Creswell,  sujjra,  concluded  his  own 
opinion  with  these  words,  the  applicability  of  which 
in  this  State  and  County  is  obvious  to  one  familiar 
with  their  law  and  charities  : 

"  I  cannot,  however,  close  this  judgment  without  ex- 
pressing my  conviction  that  the  act  was  intended 
(which  intention  has,  I  think,  been  successfully  carried 
out)  to  have  a  beneficial  action  on  the  poorer  classes. 
The  more  scientific  masters  of  medicine  being  other- 
wise engaged,  have  no  time  to  compound  and  dispense 
their  own  prescriptions ;  these,  therefore,  to  save  more 
valuable  labor,  are  relegated  to  the  chemists  and  drug- 
gists, who,  if  not  a  less  highly  educated  class,  are  at 
least  a  class  who  have  not  passed  the  necessary  exami- 
nation to  entitle  them  to  practice  as  apothecaries. 
Now  if  the  chemists  were  permitted  to  advise  on  the 
ailments  of  the  poor,  as  well  as  to  make  up  their  drugs 
into  medicines,  the  sick  poor  would  lack  the  benefit  of 
that  highest  class  of  skill  which  the  rich  by  their 
purses  can  command.  But  this  want  has  been  pro- 
vided for  the  necessitous  at  our  public  hospitals  and 
dispensaries,  where  the  ablest  physicians,  surgeons, 
and  apothecaries  in  the  land  generously  give  their  time 
and  best  skill  to  all  comers,  on  whom  not  only  sick- 
ness but  poverty  is  pressing.  The  counsel  for  the  de- 
fendant argued  that  the  poor  would  suffer  by  limiting 
the  action  of  the  druggist  according  to  the  express 
language  of  the  act ;  but  to  this  argument  the  best  an- 
swer is  given  by  the  act  itself,  which  protects,  benefits, 
and  furthers  the  highest  interests  of  the  sick  poor,  by 
pointing  and  directing  them  to  our  public  medical  in- 
stitutions for  advice  with  reference  to  their  ailments, 
and  to  the  chemists  for  their  medicines,  when  such 
are  required,  and  are  not  provided  for  by  those  noble 
and  charitable  institutions." 

Here,  then,  we  leave  for  the  moment  our  apothe- 


162  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

cary.  Having  triumphantly  established,  within  less 
than  a  hundred  years  from  his  abandonment  of  the 
grocer,  his  own  right  to  practice  medicine,  and  having 
as  triumphantly  blocked,  for  nearly  two  hundred 
years,  encroachments,  exactly  similar  to  his  own,  by 
the  chemist,  we  have  seen  him,  within  the  last  twenty- 
five  years,  lay  violent  hands  upon  the  venerable  col- 
lege whose  members  gave  him  his  first  start  in  life  as 
a  tradesman  of  a  distinct  sort ;  and  we  have  seen  him 
beaten  in  this  assault,  planned  in  the  interest  of  his 
corporation  as  a  trades-union,  and  not  as  the  dutiful 
public  servant  that  every  corporation  should  be. 

The  apothecary's  history  is  profitable  for  instruc- 
tion. Not  its  least  obvious  lesson  is  that  so  long  as 
the  laws  affecting  the  practice  of  medicine  and  the 
incorporation  of  medical  societies  are  exercised,  in  pur- 
suance of  their  ostensible  object — i.e.^  the  furthering 
of  the  public  welfare  by  requiring  of  practitioners  con- 
formity to  a  reasonable  standard  of  professional  at- 
tainment, those  laws  can  be  enforced  ;  but  that,  when- 
ever such  legislation  is  attempted  to  be  exercised  in  a 
selfish  spirit  of  trades-unionism,  for  the  benefit  of 
corporations  and  their  members,  and  in  disregard  of 
the  public  needs  and  convenience,  the  same  laws  will 
be  nullified  by  close  technical  constructions,  and  if  not 
repealed  will  fall  into  "innocuous  desuetude."  The 
medical  profession  in  this  country  has  been  free, 
fortunately,  from  those  arbitrary  limitations  which  en- 
abled the  untrained  apothecary  partially  to  supplant 
the  physician  in  England,  by  making  it  unprofessional 
for  the  latter  to  engage  in  the  practice  of  medicine  to  the 
full  extent  authorized  by  the  charter  of  the  college  grant- 


THE  EVOLUTION   OF   THE   APOTHECARY.        163 

ing  his  license.  And  there  seems  to  be  no  adequate 
reason  why  the  apothecary  with  us  should  be  suffered 
to  prescribe  chalk-mixtures  for  "light  cases  of  diar- 
rhoea," bromides  for  "  nervousness,"  and  so  forth.  A 
judge  in  ISTew  York  City  said  some  time  ago  that  the 
court  would  take  judicial  notice  of  the  fact  that  a  lawyer 
could  be  found  in  half  an  hour  for  any  client.  And 
what  with  hospitals,  infirmaries,  dispensaries,  night 
medical  service,  and  about  twice  as  many  well- 
equipped  physicians  as  lawyers  in  our  cities,  there  is 
certainly  no  crying  need  for  laymen  to  render  medical 
assistance  except  in  cases  of  emergency.^ 

'  Such  has  been  the  spread  of  the  hospital  and  dispensary  system  in  New 
York  City  of  late  years  that  many  physicians  have  banded  together  to 
correct  what  they  allege  is  its  abuse  in  furnishing  free  medical  treatment 
not  to  the  poor  only,  but  to  those  in  moderate  circumstances  and  even  to 
the  rich.     Some  of  these  allegations  if  well  founded  are  certainly  startling. 


Appendix  A. 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  CHEISTIAN"  SCIEIS-CE/ 

AS    MADE    BY    ONE    OF    ITS    EXPOUNDERS    AND    AC- 
CEPTED  BY  A   JUDGE. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Sun : 

Sir  : — Last  Sunday  afternoon  Mr.  Carol  N^orton  lec- 
tured upon  Christian  Science  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House.  The  building  was  thronged  and  the  audience 
fairly  representative  of  the  average  intelligence  and 
education  of  this  city.  Although  many  present  were 
doubtless  led  thither  by  curiosity,  a  very  large  num- 
ber, perhaps  the  majority,  were  honest  believers  in 
the  pretensions  of  Mrs.  Eddy. 

Mr.  Justice  JSTorton^  of  Allegheny  introduced  the 
lecturer  as  one  of  the  foremost  teachers  of  the  new  re- 
ligion, as  he  undoubtedly  is,  and  warmly  upheld  the 
citizen's  constitutional  right  to  entertain  any  religious 
belief,  a  right  that  it  would  be  foolish  for  any  one  to 
assail. 

Unfortunately,  no  one  alluded  to  that  valid  objec- 
tion to  Christian  Science  which  would  have  com- 
mended itself  to  so  intelligent  an  audience,  and  may 
be  thus  briefly  stated :  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  adherents 

1  From  the  New  York  Sun,  June  9,  1899. 

2  Judge  Norton  is  not,  as  would  seem  from  this  title,  a  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  although  thus  entitled  by  other  speakers  at  the  meeting. 
He  is  a  county  judge. 

165 


166  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

pretend  that  without  the  use  of  those  remedies  or  ap- 
pliances shown  by  universal  experience  to  be  certainly, 
probably  or  possibly  adequate  to  relieve  or  cure  sick- 
ness and  wounds,  they  can  by  vague  mental  processes 
alone  effect  cures  where  medical  aid  is  unavailing. 
They  even  pretend  that  the  mere  reading  of  her  book 
cures  all  human  infirmities,  even  cancer.  If  honest  in 
their  belief,  these  people  are  willing  to  put,  and  do 
put,  all  medical  and  surgical  aid  aside,  substituting 
therefor  mental  processes.  If  they  have  not  this 
Avillingness,  they  are  dishonest  accord.ing  to  their  own 
pretensions.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  they  thrust  aside 
scientific  aid,  demonstrably  adequate  to  save  life,  and 
substitute  therefor  a  treatment  under  which  death 
results,  they  are  certainly  guilty  of  homicide  in  some 
degree,  and  this  practice  is  dangerous  to  the  public 
health.  From  this  dilemma  there  is  no  escape.  It  is 
worth  while,  therefore,  to  ask  every  thoughtful  and 
candid  person  who  has  listened  to  or  read  the  words 
of  Mr.  Norton,  Mrs.  Eddy's  foremost  apostle,  to 
ponder  carefully  the  manner  in  which  that  gentleman, 
upon  whom  no  imputation  is  cast,  answers  inquiries 
that  he  himself  solicits.  Let  him  and  his  teacher  be 
judged,  in  all  fairness,  by  their  own  words. 

Mr.  Norton  offered  medical  proof  that  Christian 
Science  has  cured  locomotor  ataxia,  cancer  and  many 
other  diseases.  This  offer  is  not  new.  Mr.  Norton 
copyrighted  a  lecture  in  1898,  which  he  has  been 
delivering  since  with  more  or  less  variation.  It  was 
printed  in  full  by  the  Troy  Record  of  February  28, 
1899.  On  March  30,  I  wrote  to  him,  apropos  of  that 
publication,  as  follows :  ~ 


THE   CLAIMS    OF   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE.  167 

A  copy  of  your  lecture  .  .  .  has  been  sent  to 
me.  You  therein  say  that  "  regular  medical  confir- 
mation of  cases  two,  three,  four,  five  and  eight  will  be 
furnished  any  honest  skeptic."  I  am  certainly  a 
skeptic,  and,  if  I  may  say  so,  an  honest  one,  and  I 
should  be  very  much  obliged  to  you  if  you  will  give 
the  names  and  addresses  of  reputable  and  competent 
medical  practitioners  who  will  certify  to  the  second 
case,  the  cure  of  an  incurable  cancer;  the  third  case, 
the  cure  of  a  child  suffering  from  epileptic  fits  from 
birth,  and  having  forty  spasms  a  day  at  the  commence- 
ment of  treatment ;  the  fourth  case,  a  cure  of  ''  con- 
sumption of  the  lungs  in  the  second  stage  of  that  dis- 
ease ; "  the  fifth  case,  a  cure  of  a  patient  ill  with 
typhoid  fever  in  Paris  and  treated  by  a  practitioner 
in  New  York;  the  eighth  case,  the  cure  of  a  lady 
forty  years  old  unsuccessfully  treated  for  thirty-five 
years  for  "  organic  valvular  diseases  of  the  heart"  by 
physicians  who  pronounced  the  disease  incurable.  I 
should  like  to  know  what  persons  made  the  diagnoses 
in  these  cases,  the  course  of  treatment  followed,  the 
method  taken  to  exclude  in  the  cure  other  factors 
than  treatment  by  Christian  Science,  and  the  present 
condition  of  the  person  cured. 

Mr.  Norton  replied  courteously  on  April  3,  promis- 
ing the  information.  On  April  18,  politely  explain- 
ing his  delay  upon  the  ground  of  many  engagements, 
he  wrote :  "  I  will  have  the  positive  proof  of  my  ut- 
terances in  the  lecture  that  you  read  in  the  Troy 
Record  properly  prepared  for  a  lawyer's  gaze  within 
a  few  days."  On  April  29,  reminding  Mr.  Norton 
that  a  month  had  elapsed  since  my  request,  I  wrote : 

"With  the  desire  to  be  entirely  fair  in  discussing 
the  theories  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  yourself  I  beg  now  to 
ask  that  you  kindly  give  me  an  early  reply  to  the  fol- 
lowing questions  for  immediate  use  : 


168  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

"First— If  Christian  Science,  as  you  say  in  your 
Saratoga  lecture  of  August  26,  1898,  'removes  the 
possibility  of  human  and  personal  contention,'  why 
has  Mrs.  Eddy  had  so  much  contention  concerning  the 
late  P.  P.  Quimby  and  the  copyright  of  her  book  that 
she  has  threatened  legal  proceedings,  and,  I  under- 
stand, actually  resorted  to  the  courts  ? 

"  Second — If  '  matter '  is  only  erroneous  thought  in 
'mortal  mind,'  and,  therefore,  non-existent  in  mind 
illuminated  by  the  right  thought  of  Christian  Science, 
and  if  the  material  aids  to  the  injured  of  drugs,  band- 
ages, splints,  etc.,  are  unnecessary  and  even  harmful 
for  the  proper  treatment  of  physical  injuries,  will  you 
kindly  tell  me  Avhat  course  you  or  Mrs.  Eddy  would 
adopt  in  any  of  the  following  cases : 

"  (a)  Walking  along  the  street,  a  brick  falls  from 
above  and  cuts  your  head,  causing  blood  to  flow  ? 

"  (b)  A  child  at  table  swallows  a  fishbone  and  is  in 
peril  of  strangulation  ? 

"  (c)  Your  child  is  riding  in  a  street  car  and  a  per- 
son with  confluent  smallpox  sits  down  beside  it? 

"  (d)  A  child  in  the  street  is  run  down  by  a  cable 
car  and  bleeds  from  a  severed  artery  ? 

"  (e)  A  baby  falls  from  a  window  and  fractures  its 
skull  ?  " 

On  May  4,  Mr.  Norton  civilly  replied,  kindly  prom- 
ising to  call  upon  me  on  May  8,  with  the  promised 
medical  confirmation,  and,  as  to  the  foregoing  ques- 
tions, said :  ''The  questio7is  in  your  letter  of  April  29, 
I  will  he  obliged  to  shelve  for  the  present^  desiring  to 
do  one  thing  at  a  time.  I  think  you  will  agree  with 
me  that  neither  of  us  could  expect  to  master  the  ideas 
of  Mr.  Spencer  or  Mr.  Darwin  in  a  hurried  or  impetu- 
ous way,  no  matter  how  honest  our  purpose." 

Upon  May  8,  Mr.  Norton  did  me  the  honor  of  call- 

»  The  italics  are  mine.— W.  A.  P. 


THE  CLAIMS   OF  CHEISTIAN  SCIENCE.  169 

ing  with  the  promised  "  medical  confirmation,"  which 
consisted  in  each  case  of  a  brief  statement  of  conclu- 
sions signed  by  a  Christian  Scientist.     Of  these  sign- 
ers one  was  said  to  have  studied  in  a  homeopathic, 
and  another  in  a  regular  medical  college.     No  facts 
were  set  forth  upon  which  the  conclusions  were  based, 
no  names  were  connected  with  the  certificates  that 
would  carry  any  weight  with   the   general   medical 
profession  or  any  body  of  trained  investigators.     Nor 
would  the  evidence  have  been  admissible  in  Judge 
Norton's    court.     It   is   not   meant   by   this   to   cast 
the  least  reflection  upon  the  honesty,  sincerity  and 
good  repute  of  the  signers.     Doubtless  they  are  ex- 
cellent persons,  but  their  names  are  unknown  in  the 
field  of  accurate  investigation.     In  a  very  pleasant  and 
good-tempered  conversation,  Mr.  Norton  referred  to 
this  actual  case  mentioned  in  my  letter  of  April  28 : 
A  mother  affected  with  Christian   Science,  but  not 
to  the  point  of  infanticide,  called  a  physician  to  see 
her  child  sick  from  eating  stone-fruit.     "  Doctor,"  she 
said,  "  I  really  do  not  know  whether  the  stone  is  in 
the  child  or  in  my  mind."     "  Madame,"  he  replied,  "  I 
cannot   undertake  to  prescribe  for  a  stone  in  your 
mind,  but  I  can  manage  one  in  the  boy."     And  this 
he  did  very  successfully  with  castor  oil.     Of  this  ma- 
terial  thought  Mr.  Norton,  in  flat  contradiction  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  ("  Science  and  Health,"  pp.  158,  159,  edi- 
tion of  1887),  said  :  "  How  silly  !     Of  course,  the  stone 
was  in  the  boy.     But  there  are  fools  among  Christian 
Scientists  as  well  as  among  other  classes."     It  was  a 
proposition  upon  which  we  unexpectedly  found  our- 
selves in  entire  accord.     He  was  understood  also  dis- 


ITO  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

tinctly  to  say  that  Christian  Scientists  made  differ- 
ential diagnoses,  and  would  presume  in  the  case  of  a 
severed  artery  to  put  aside  a  surgeon  and  substitute 
for  his  their  own  treatment.  But  in  order  that  no 
misapprehensions  might  arise  on  this  score  a  letter 
was  written  on  the  following  day  to  his  secretary, 
saying : 

I  understood  Mr.  Norton  yesterday  to  say  that 
Christian  Scientists  both  make  and  accept  differential 
diagnoses  of  disease ;  that  if  a  patient  came  to  him 
complaining  of  a  sore,  he  would  make  diagnosis  to  de- 
termine whether  it  was  cancer,  abscess,  ulcer,  carbun- 
cle, boil,  or  what  not ;  and  so  with  diseases  he  would 
make  diagnosis  between  pneumonia,  fever,  appendi- 
citis, etc.  I  further  understood  him  distinctly  to  say 
that  if  the  clerk  in  my  outer  office  should  accidentally 
sever  an  artery  and  there  were  a  surgeon  present  with 
adequate  surgical  appliances  to  stanch  the  flow  of 
blood,  he,  Mr.  Norton,  would  assume  the  responsibility 
of  checking  that  arterial  gush  by  the  mental  processes 
of  Christian  Science,  and  would  dispense  with  the 
surgeon's  aid  and  appliances.  To  my  mind  these  are 
very  startling  propositions,  and  I  wish,  in  justice  to 
Mr.  Norton  and  the  cause  he  represents,  to  be  entirely 
sure  that  I  apprehend  him  rightly,  and  I  shall  be 
obliged  to  him  or  to  you  for  a  prompt  reply  on  these 
points.  And  I  should  also  be  glad  to  have  replies  to 
the  questions  that  I  last  submitted  to  Mr.  Norton  in 
writing  as  to  what  he  would  himself  do  in  the  case  of 
certain  accidents  occurring  in  his  presence,  such  as 
the  fracture  of  the  skull  by  a  falling  brick,  the  sever- 
ing of  a  leg  by  a  cable  car,  etc. 

To  this  Mr.  Norton  himself  replied  thus  on  May  29, 
the  italics  being  his : 

You  most  thoroughly  misunderstood  me  in  relation 


THE   CLAIMS   OP   CHRlSTlAK   SCIENCE.  171 

to  what  I  said  about  deferential '  diagnosis  of  disease. 
I  make  no  diagnosis  except  along  the  lines  of  consist- 
ent mental  therapeutics.  An  expert  in  mental  thera- 
peutics will  naturally  know  the  character  of  this  diag- 
nosis. Discord  is  discord.  Pain  is  pain.  Disease  is 
disease.  The  principle  that  cures  one,  if  rightly  ap- 
plied, will  cure  all.  This  is  the  beginning  and  end  of 
rational  mental  healing.  In  relation  to  mental  treat- 
ment for  a  severed  artery,  I  said  simply  that  I  be- 
lieved the  proper  application  of  mind  power  would  do 
the  same  work,  if  not  better  than  any  other  method. 
I  beg  that  you  quote  me  correctly,  if  you  ever  quote 
me,  and  I  most  thoroughly  disagree  with  the  under- 
standing you  got  about  diagnosis.  In  reply  to  the 
list  of  questions  that  you  wrote  to  me  in  a  recent  let- 
ter, I  have  but  to  repeat  my  recent  utterances  m  a 
letter  to  you,  that  I  f refer  to  slieUe  tkem^  because  to 
answer  them  would  bring  about  wholly  indifferent  re- 
sults. 

Space  forbids  the  publication  of  all  the  letters 
verbatim,  nor  is  that  necessary.  Mr.  ISTorton  has 
been  accurately  quoted  upon  the  point  at  issue.  Every 
one  can  decide  for  himself  whether  the  questions  were 
fairly  put  and  fairly  answered.  The  learned  Judge 
who  presided  at  Sunday's  meeting  should  be  eminently 
competent  to  decide  whether  Mr.  Norton  would  be 
guilty  of  manslaughter  under  this  hypothetical  state 
of  facts :  A  child  is  bleeding  to  death  from  a  severed 
artery.  A  surgeon  at  hand  with  ligatures  and  all 
proper  appliances  is  demonstrably  able  to  stop  the  flow 
of  blood.  Mr.  [N'orton  thrusts  him  aside,  saying: 
"  Here  is  only  an  error  of  mortal  mind.  My  revered 
mother,  Mrs.  Eddy,  teaches,  on  pp.  158  and  159  ©f 

1  ^i^^  2  These  italics  are  mine.— W.  A.  P. 


172  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

*  Science  and  Health,'  thus:  *Mind  can  regulate  the 
condition  of  the  stomach,  bowels,  food,  temperature  of 
your  child,  far  better  than  matter  can  do  so.  Your 
child  can  have  worms  if  you  say  so,  or  whatever 
malady  is  timorously  holden  in  your  mind  relative  to 
the  body.'  And  at  page  183  she  says :  '  Anatomy, 
physiology,  treatises  on  health — sustained  by  what  is 
called  material  law — are  the  husbandmen  of  sickness 
and  disease.'  Accordingly,  dismiss  the  surgeon  while 
I  apply  mind  power.  If  I  do  it  properly  I  will  do  the 
same  work,  if  not  better  than  the  surgeon."  The 
child  dies.  Would  Judge  ISTorton's  belief  in  liberty 
of  conscience,  which  no  sensible  person  wishes  to 
curtail,  lead  him  to  instruct  a  jury  that  a  person 
thus  suffering  a  little  child  to  bleed  to  death  and 
thrusting  aside  the  aid  that  would  have  saved  life  is 
guiltless  of  manslaughter  ? 

If  it  be  said  that  Christian  Scientists  would  not 
attempt  to  treat  such  a  case,  it  is  admitted  that  the 
whole  solemn  preachment  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  Mr.  Norton 
and  their  fellows  is  nonsense,  a  humbug,  a  snare  and  a 
delusion ;  that  their  alleged  cures  are  due  not  to  any 
peculiar  virtue  of  Christian  Science,  but  to  that  action 
upon  the  body  of  the  mind  in  a  certain  class  of  cases 
that  has  been  known  and  acted  upon  both  by  phy- 
sicians and  intelligent  laymen  since  before  the  time  of 
Ileraclitus :  that  operates  for  the  voudoo  priestess  as 
well  as  for  Mrs.  Eddy. 

If  it  is  depressing  to  see  an  intelligent  audience 
listening  seriously  to  such  teaching,  it  is  equally 
regrettable  that  a  member  of  the  Court  should  pre- 
side at  such  a  meeting,  when  it  is  considered  that 


THE  CLAIMS   OF  CHEISTIAN   SCIENCE.  173 

cases  may  come  before  him  involving  violations  of 
the  law-whether  by  homicide  or  failure  to  report 
births,  deaths  and  contagious  diseases-under  cover  of 
theories  which  he  publicly  defends,  apparently,  as 
reducible  with  safety  to  common  practice.  Surely 
this  learned  Judge  knows  that  in  the  Mormon  cases 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  lucidly  pointed  out 
the  wide  distinction  between  religious  liberty  and 
license  to  commit,  in  the  name  of  religion,  acts  for- 
bidden by  the  law  of  the  land  enacted  withm  the 
scope  of  the  police  power. 

W.  A.  PUKEINGTON. 

New  York,  May  ig. 


Appendix  B. 

CHKISTIAN  SCIENCE  AND  THE  LAW.^ 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Sun  : 

Sir  :— In  a  recent  editorial  quoting  a  number  of  the 
excerpts  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  lately  appearing  in  the 
reviews  systematic  effort  was  urged  "  to  ferret  out  and 
punish "  Christian  Scientists.  The  editorial  omitted, 
however,  to  show  the  state  of  the  law  and  the  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  following  its  advice.  It  would 
be  unfortunate  if  the  adverse  sentiment  toward  Eddy- 
ism  aroused  by  exposure  of  its  methods  and  the  nu- 
merous reported  cases  of  its  manslaughters  should  be 
perverted  or  lessened  by  ill-considered  action ;  it  seems, 
therefore,  worth  while  to  make  the  situation  clear. 

No  medical  law  of  any  State  enjoins  or  prohibits 
any  system  of  medical  practice.  No  law  forbidding 
the  practice  of  Christian  Science  or  any  other  system 
of  treating  the  sick,  no  matter  how  foolish,  has  been 
proposed.  Those  who  assert  the  contrary  do  so  igno- 
rantly  or  with  intent  to  mislead.  What  medical  laws 
require,  and  in  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  nation  and  of  almost  every  State  properly  require, 
is  that  no  person  shall  practice  medicine  before  he  has 
pursued  a  proper  course  of  study  and  furnished  some 
evidence  that  he  has  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  human 

»  New  York  Sun,  July  12,  1899. 

175 


1T6  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

economy  and  the  sciences  relating  thereto.  This  reg- 
ulation applies  to  Eoman  Catholics,  Protestants  and 
Jews.  It  is  objected  to  by  Christian  Scientists  and 
Spiritualists,  who  stoutly  maintain  that  to  require  the 
same  education  of  them  as  of  others  engaging  in  the 
same  business  is  to  infringe  their  liberty  of  conscience 
and  right  to  worship  in  their  own  way,  although  it 
is  undeniable  that  when  a  man  has  once  obtained  a 
license  to  practice  medicine  upon  proof  of  his  scien- 
tific attainments  he  may  follow  any  system  he  chooses. 
He  may,  if  he  see  fit,  rely  solely  upon  mental  proc- 
esses. Every  physician  does  largely  take  into  account 
and  rely  upon  the  effect  of  the  mind  upon  the  body, 
especially  in  certain  classes  of  cases.  There  are  few 
to-day  who  pretend  that  the  high  potencies  of  home- 
opathy have  any  medicinal  action,  and  it  was  a  realiza- 
tion that  their  effect  was  due  to  the  patient's  imagina- 
tion that  led  Mrs.  Eddy,  as  she  says,  into  her  own 
extraordinary  system.  But  homeopathists  admit  the 
existence  of  disease.  They  often  administer  drugs  as 
heroically  as  regular  practitioners — sometimes  more 
heroically.  They  use  surgery  skilfully.  In  fact,  it 
is  often  difficult  to  differentiate  them  from  regular 
physicians  by  their  practice  alone ;  nor  was  there  ever 
a  time  when  they  did  not  claim  to  be  called  physi- 
cians. The  Eddyites,  on  the  other  hand,  although 
eager  to  dub  themselves  "doctors  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence," declare  that  they  are  not  practitioners  of  medi- 
cine. Mrs.  Eddy,  as  was  fully  pointed  out  in  the 
North  American  Review  for  March,  condemns  not 
only  drugs,  remedies  and  instruments,  but  even  hy- 
giene, exercise  and  bathing.     Her  method  of  curing 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  AND   THE  LAW.  177 

disease  is  first  to  deny  its  existence  and  then  to  argue 
with  it  as  one  would  argue  with  a  Congressman. 
Herein  lies  at  once  the  danger  of  her  crazy  method 
and  the  immunity  of  its  practitioners  from  punish- 
ment under  the  law  of  this  and  many  other  States. 
A  druggist  who  prescribes  a  proprietary  nostrum  or 
so  simple  a  remedy  as  rhubarb  or  chalk  mixture  may 
be  convicted  of  a  misdemeanor.  Our  Supreme  Court 
has  so  held  in  several  cases.  But  it  also  has  laid 
down  in  Smith  v.  Lane  (24  Hun.,  632)  the  narrow 
rule  that  the  use  of  drugs,  medicines  or  instruments  is 
an  essential  element  of  medical  practice,  holding,  in 
substance,  that  the  medical  law  was  intended  only  to 
protect  those  seeking  treatment  secundum  artem  from 
false  pretenders  to  skill  in  the  use  of  dangerous  drugs 
or  instruments,  but  not  to  protect  from  their  mistake 
or  folly,  persons  who,  lured  by  wonderful  promises  of 
cure,  submit  themselves  to  the  treatment  of  those 
avowedly  discarding  ordinary  medical  methods. 

This  case,  expressly  approved  of  in  Ohio,  Ehode 
Island  and  perhaps  other  States,  is  the  joy  and  bul- 
wark of  Christian  Scientists.  It  was  held  to  be  in- 
applicable under  the  Nebraska  and  Illinois  statutes ; 
but  from  the  last  Legislature  of  the  latter  State  the 
Eddyites  are  said  to  have  secured  a  proviso  in  the 
new  medical  law  adopting  its  rule. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  a  letter  in  The  Sun  of 
June  9,  the  accuracy  of  which  has  not  been  denied 
to  my  knowledge,  showed  that  when  Mr.  Carol  Norton, 
Mrs.  Eddy's  apostle  hereabouts,  was  asked  if  he  would 
dare  to  exclude  medical  aid  and  treat  severed  arteries, 
fractures,  strangulations  and  contagious  diseases  by 


178  CHEISTIAN  SCIENCE. 

mental  processes  he  twice  wrote  that  he  preferred 
to  shelve  the  questions.  It  must  seem  startling  to  a 
layman  that  a  druggist  violates  the  medical  law  by 
prescribing  rhubarb,  while  a  Christian  Scientist  who 
*'  thinks  at "  the  severed  artery  of  a  child  is  exempt 
from  the  operations  of  that  statute.  And  perhaps  it 
may  seem  easy  to  rectify  the  anomaly  by  legislation. 
Two  recent  experiments  in  this  direction  may  be 
profitable  for  instruction. 

In  1898  a  bill  was  introduced  into  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  defining  the  term  "  practicing  medicine  " 
so  as  to  include  all  methods  of  treating  the  sick  and 
wounded  for  hire,  including,  of  course.  Christian  Sci- 
entists and  every  sort  of  "  healer."  As  was  naturally 
to  be  expected,  Mr.  "William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  Prof. 
James — the  latter  of  whom  seems  bent  upon  forcing 
Harvard,  ancient  mother  of  scholars  and  conservative 
men,  to  associate,  in  the  public  mind,  with  Mesdames 
Eddy  and  Piper — lifted  up  their  voices  against  the 
bill.  These  gentlemen  represent  the  best  of  the  host 
that  rally  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  support ;  sincere,  educated, 
intelligent,  dearly  loving  to  run  a  tilt  with  the  ma- 
jority, with  Athenian  fondness  for  new  things  and  not 
unwilling  to  fill  the  trump  of  Fame.  Mr.  Garrison, 
therefore,  who  a  short  time  ago — I  think  it  is  the  same 
Mr.  Garrison — clamored  at  the  top  of  his  pen  for  aca- 
demic rules  to  prevent  the  ingenuous  youth  of  Har- 
vard from  inflicting  or  submitting  to  the  cautery  of  a 
boyish  and  rather  silly  initiation  of  a  secret  society — 
Mr.  Garrison,  who  has  harrowed  all  our  feelings  by 
pointing  out  the  awful  brutality  of  football,  actually 
obstructed  the  passage  of  the  law  requiring  Christian 


CHEISTIAN  SCIEKCE  AND  THE  LAW.  179 

Scientists  in  Massachusetts  to  have  as  a  condition  of 
treating  the  sick  the  same  education  required  of  Prot- 
estants, Catholics  and   Jews    engaged   in  the  same 
business.     And  what  was  his   delightful   argument? 
As  reported  bv  the  Christian  Scientists,  it  seems  to 
have  consisted" of  two  main  premises:     First,  "John 
P   Kobinson,  he,  said  they  didn't  know  everything 
down  in  Judee,"  or,  in  common  English,  "the  physi- 
cians don't  know  it  all:  therefore  let  all  the  ignorant 
have  free  field."    Second,  homeopathy  was  formerly 
ridiculed.     The  answer  seems  simple  enough.     Mr. 
Robinson,  whose  dictum  has  been  much  over^Yorked 
was  ri^ht.    In  medical  science  we  know  a  good  deal 
more    than  was  known    in    Judee.    Moreover,   Mr. 
Garrison  himself  doesn't  practice  all  theories  ema- 
natino-  from  that  district.     He  may  surpass  the  rest  ot 
us  but  it  may  be  doubted  whether  he  gives  to  every 
one  that  asks  of  him  or  turns  away  from  none  who 
would  borrow  of  him;  and  as  for  resisting  what  he 
considers  evil  he  has  a  perfect  mania  for  it,  using  the 
sonnet  with  deadly  effect.     It  is  true  that  the  meta- 
physical theory  of  Hahnemann  that  a  drug  has  me- 
dicinal properties  when  attenuated  to  a  degree  repre- 
sented by  figures  that  overwhelm  the  imagination, 
and  that  such  properties  are  further  affected  by  the 
number  and  direction  of  the  shakes  given  to  the  phial 
containing  the  potency,  was  ridiculed,  and  very  justly 
so  as  appears  from  the  fact  that  few  homeopathists 
of  to-day  profess  the  theory,  and  fewer,  if  any,  prac- 
tice it,  except,  perhaps,  as  a  form  of  mind  cure.     Prof. 
James  was  not  less  convincing  than  Mr.  Garrison. 
With  neat  appreciation  of  the  proprieties  he  pro- 


180  CHEISTIAN   SCIENCE. 

claimed  his  professorship  at  Harvard,  thereby  drag- 
ging a  reputable  mother's  name  into  company  where 
most  of  her  offspring  would  blush  to  see  her.  Next 
he  took  the  bold,  broad,  not  to  say  bad,  ground  that 
the  State  should  not  regulate  medicine  at  all,  because 
it  is  not  a  "  finished  science."  This  is  the  most  de- 
licious tid-bit  of  logic  yet  offered.  If  we  are  to  legis- 
late only  about  "  finished  sciences  "  our  statute  books 
will  soon  be  made  up  of  enactments  that  straight  lines 
shall  be  the  shortest  distances  betAveen  points,  and 
that  it  shall  be  a  misdemeanor  for  the  square  de- 
scribed on  the  hypothenuse  to  exceed  the  sum  of  the 
squares  described  on  the  other  two  sides. 

In  the  same  year  Senator  Coggeshall  introduced 
into  the  Kew  York  Legislature,  at  whose  instance  I 
do  not  know,  a  bill  that  would  have  affected  Christian 
Scientists.  At  its  hearing  in  committee  so  many 
Eddyites,  most  of  them  in  skirts,  were  present  that 
adjournment  was  had  to  the  Senate  chamber.  Ap- 
parently no  one  spoke  for  the  bill  and  no  one  of  note 
against  it.  After  the  usual  platitudes  concerning 
liberty  and  the  customary  depreciation  of  medicine  as 
an  unfinished  science,  the  Senator  is  reported  to  have 
smiled,  bowed  to  the  ladies,  and  abandoned  the  bant- 
ling upon  Mrs.  Eddy's  doorstep  as  cheerfully  as  he 
took  it  from  its  parent,  whoever  that  may  have  been. 
It  was  another  instance  of  an  enthusiastic  and  organ- 
ized few  carrying  their  point,  while  the  unorganized 
multitude  was  indifferent  and  apathetic.  It  seems 
obvious,  therefore,  that  attempts  at  legislation  in  this 
matter  should  not  be  made  ill-advisedly  or  without 
due  organization. 


CHKISTIAN   SCIENCE  AND  THE  LAW.  181 

But   does  it  follow  that  we  are  without  remedy 
under  existing  law?     It  would  seem  not.     If  it  can 
be  demonstrated  that  a  Christian  Scientist  has  caused 
death  by  excluding  proper  medical  or  surgical  treat- 
ment and  substituting  his  mental  processes — in  such 
cases,  for  instance,  as  those  submitted  to  Mr.  Norton 
and  "  shelved  "  by  him— it  ought  not  to  be  diflacult  to 
obtain  a  conviction  of  manslaughter,  if  not  of  murder. 
The  societies  for  prevention  of  cruelty  to  children  can 
act  in  the  premises.     English  courts  are   extraordi- 
narily lenient  with  fanatics,  but  although  Wagstaffe 
escaped  punishment   prior  to  the  enactment  of  the 
Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children  statute,  that  law 
seems  to  have  been  passed  in  consequence  of  his  ac- 
quittal;   and  recently  another  member  of  the  "Pe- 
culiar People,"  whose  child  died  under  a  similar  treat- 
ment by  anointing  with  oil  in  Apostolic  fashion,  was 
convicted  of  manslaughter.     If  memory  serves,  Mr. 
Gerry,  some  years   ago,  took  from   a  missionary  a 
child  whose  fractured  arm  the  father  was   treating 
solely  by  such  anointing  ;  and  the  Bishop  forbade  the 
parent  to  go  back  to  his  post.     There  is  no  reason 
why  Christian  Scientists  should  not  be  compelled  to 
report  births,  deaths  and  contagious  diseases  under 
the  usual  penalties  for  disobedience.     If  they  say  that 
it  is  wrong  to  compel  them,  who  do  not  believe  in 
disease,  to  report  its  existence,  once  more  the  answer 
is  simple:   Mrs.   Eddy  herself  has  reported  in  print 
that  her  first  husband,  Col.  Glover,  died  of  "  yellow 
fever,"  that  "  insidious  disease." 

But   after   all,  that  which   will   destroy  Christian 
Science  is  the  true  exposition  in  the  reviews  and  daily 


182  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

press  of  its  absurdities,  its  vulgarities,  its  false  pre- 
tences as  well  as  its  dangers.  It  does  not  seem  possible 
that  a  sane  or  reverent  mind  or  one  with  any  sense  of 
humor  could  accept  seriously  the  preachment  of  the 
exceedingly  shrewd,  but  very  ignorant  and  ungram- 
matical  old  lady,  once  of  Lynn  but  now  of  Concord. 
And  it  is  safe  to  say  that  unless  Christian  Scientists 
can  win  some  temporary  advantage  by  cheap  martyr- 
dom the  time  will  come  very  soon  when  sane  and 
reputable  persons,  many  of  whom  now  accept  the 
doctrine  ignorantly,  will  blush  with  shame  to  think 
they  ever  could  have  been  disciples  of  Mary  Moss 
Baker  Glover  Patterson  Eddy,  whose  name  seems  to 
be  legion.  W.  A.  Purrington. 

July  10. 


Index. 


Absent    Treatment,    22,    30", 

lOI. 

Advertising,  methods,  (see  Mrs. 
Eddy). 

^sop's  fable,  ass  and  lion's 
skin,  97. 

Agamo-genesis,  possible  in  "  Sci- 
ence," 47. 

Agathon's  dinner,  23. 

Agnosticism,  confounded  with 
gnosticism,  42. 

Anatomy,  study  of  condemned, 
25,  47;  a  cause  of  disease, 
172. 

Anecdotes,  of  Bishop  and  Luna- 
tic, 63;  of  Faith  Cure,  38. 

Afiimai Magnetism,  condemned, 
23,  47,  58,  (see  Cerberus). 

Anti-diploma  Law  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 51. 

Apothecary,  meaning  of,  145; 
and  grocer,  146;  originally 
dispenser  not  prescriber, 
147,  148,  151;  wins  right  to 
prescribe,  132,  151  to  155; 
in  America,  158",  163;  in 
England,  160;  English 
apothecaries  act,  155;  ex- 
aminations, 157;  try  to  en- 
join college  of  physicians 
from  licensing  general 
practitioners,  158;  differs 
from  chemist,  158;  contrast 
between   his  legal  liability 


and  that  of  a  "  Scientist," 
178. 

Argument  against  Christian 
Science,  remedy  for  dis- 
eases, 21,  22;  summed  up, 
63. 

Aristophanes  ridicules  harmony 
cure,  23. 

Artery,  Christian  Science  tested 
by,  65,  67,  (see  Norton). 

Astrologer,  consulted  when  in 
prison,  88. 


Babies,    daily   ablution   of,    24, 

(see  Children). 
Baker,    maiden   name  of  Mrs. 

Eddy,  40. 
Barbers,  ancient  surgeons,  149. 
Bates,  General  Erastus  N.,  52, 

58. 
Bathing,  condemned,  24. 
Baimscheidtisnms,  death   from, 

75- 

Bayard,  last  strict  Hahneman- 
nist  in  N.  Y.,  94. 

Bentham  on  legislation,  128. 

Bequests  of  Ch7'istian  Science, 
costly  and  martial,  59. 

Berkeley,  Bishop,  tar-water  the- 
ory, 13;  almost  discovered 
Christian  Science,  18. 

Bible,  (see  Scriptures). 

Bishop,  anecdote  of  lunatic 
and,  63. 


183 


184 


INDEX. 


Boards  of  Exaininers,  (see  Med- 
ical Examiners). 

Boastf Illness,  badge  of  charla- 
tan, II,  (see  Mrs.  Eddy). 

Body,  evolved  from  mortal 
mind,  21;  not  to  be  cared 
for,  24;  seedling  that  starts 
thought,  21. 

Botiuiical   School,    Thomson's, 

71- 

Browning,  Robert,  poetry  com- 
pared with  Mrs.  Eddy's, 
59.  60. 

Buchanan  s.  College,  compared 
with  Mrs.  Eddy's,  54. 

Bunions  may  be  insanity,  21. 


C.  S.  D.,  symbolic  letters,  55; 
first  displayed  by  Mrs. 
Eddy,  45. 

Cabbage,  eaten  heartily  by  a 
baby  under  Mrs.  Eddy's 
care,  27. 

Ca^z,  judgment  of  a,  25,  no, 
III. 

Cagliostro,  67,  91;  offer  to  swal- 
low poison,  45" . 

Cancer,  cured  by  Mrs.  Eddy  in 
one  visit,  27;  by  merely 
reading  her  book,  17,  166; 
Mr.  Norton's  statement  as 
to,  167. 

"  Catnip  and  Christ,''  Mrs. 
Eddy's  profane  compari- 
son, 58. 

Cerberus,  devours  Delilah's  vic- 
tims, 58. 

Certificates,  Mrs,  Eddy's,  27; 
evidence  of  their  fabrica- 
tion, 60",  (see  Mrs.  Eddy's 
advertising  methods, 
Death). 

Charlatanism,  1 1 ;  homicide 
and,  127. 


Charter,  (see  College,  Mrs. 
Eddy). 

Chemist,  English  equivalent  of 
American  apothecary,  158. 

Childbirth,  normal  operation  of 
function,  not  disease,  66,, 
120 ;  danger  of  Christian 
Science  in,  67. 

Childreti,  cured  of  bowel  com- 
plaint, 27;  "dumpishness," 
61;  hayfever  and  rupture, 
30";  diseases  of,  due  to  ma- 
ternal ideas,  25,  169,  171; 
danger  to,  of  Eddyism,  25, 
26,  37,  169,  171;  medical 
neglect  of,  26,  87,  88,  (see 
Peculiar  People);  exposure 
of  to  contagion,  26,  65,  103, 
120;  not  amenable  to  force 
of  suggestion,  103;  inflam- 
mation of  eyes,  to  be  report- 
ed, 108;  severed  artery,  64: 
104;  113;  168;  protection 
from  cruelty,  181,  (see  Nor- 
ton). 

Christ,  corner-stone  of  Mrs.  Ed- 
dy's church,  41;  and  catnip, 
58;  less  than  Christianity,  18. 

Christianity,  larger  than  its 
founder,  18. 

Christian  Science,  alleged  cures 
due  to  suggestion,  etc.,  66, 
loi;  no  peculiar  efficacy  in, 
64;  basis  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
church,  41;  causes  of  suc- 
cess, 18,  19,  66  ;  condemns 
all  other  systems,  24;  dan- 
ger of,  23,  29,  37,  177;  de- 
stroys Mrs.  Eddy's  edu- 
cation, 42;  differs  from 
homeopathy  and  eclecti- 
cism, 117;  discovery  of,  17, 
48,  49;  "hopelessly  origi- 
nal," 47;  inefficacious  and 
sham  in  surgical  cases,  28, 
64,  loi,  171;  only  means 
of  cure,  23,  24;  originated 


INDEX. 


185 


in    homeopathic   idea,    i6, 
icx>;  practice  of  should  not 
be  absolutely  forbidden,  34, 
115,180;  pretences  summed 
up,    166;  publicity  will  de- 
stroy,    36,    98,    182;    suc- 
cess dependent  on  fees,  56; 
therapeutic  methods,  21,82, 
84,    loi;  unimportant  as  a 
religious    or    metaphysical 
theory,    22,    63,    loo,    102, 
(see  Manslaughter,  Medical 
Boards,  Mrs.  Eddy). 
Christian   Scientists,  disingenu- 
ous, of  104  ;  liability  of  for 
malpractice,    32,    33,    109, 
114,    181,  (see  manslaugh- 
ter);   reports  of  contagious 
disease  and   death  by,  86, 
108,    120,  181;  held  to  be 
or  not  to  be  practitioners  of 
medicine  according  to  law 
of  the   particular  jurisdic- 
tion, 31,  79  seq.,  (see  cita- 
tions of  Smith   V.    Lane) ; 
Mrs.  Eddy's  advice  to,  56; 
their  comfortable  fortunes, 
57;  their  fees,  56,  83,  84; 
reasons  of  their  objection  to 
classification    with     physi- 
cians, 16. 
Church,  Mrs.   Eddy's,  41;  civil 
liability  of  Christian  Scien- 
tists, (see  Christian  Scien- 
tists). 
Clairvoyance,  is  medical  practice 
if    coupled    with    material 
remedies,     81,      85;     con- 
demned by  Mrs.  Eddy,  23, 

47. 

Cleanliness,  discouraged,  20,  24. 

Clergy,  formerly  practiced  physic 
and  licensed  physicians,  149. 

Clothing,  unnecessary  to  Chris- 
tian Scientists,  25. 

*' Coffee,''  Thomsonian  remedy, 


Coggeshall,  legislative  bill  of 
senator,  180. 

College,  (Mrs.  Eddy's),  50  to 
57;  course  of  instruction, 
staff  and  fees,  51,  52; 
closed  on  account  of  pros- 
perity, 55;  or  anti-diploma 
law,  51;  enormous  success, 

54. 

College,  Royal  of  Physicians, 
chartered,  148;  by-laws, 
157;  right  to  license,  158. 

Conjugal  Rights,  Mrs.  Eddy's 
ideas  of,  46,  47. 

Copyright,  Mrs,  Eddy's  zeal  for 
her,  47,  48,  49,  t68;  in- 
fringement of  declared 
theft,  48. 

Constitutionality  of  health  and 
medical  laws,  14,  124. 

Contagious  Diseases,  duty  to  re- 
port, 31,  33,  86,  108,  120, 
181;  exposure  of  children 
to,  26,  65,  103,  120. 

Crous,  Jno.  M.,  his  hydro- 
phobia cure,  70. 

Cures,  due  to  faith  of  mortal 
mind,  20;  scandal,  78"; 
Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  47;  of 
hayfever,  heart  disease  and 
insanity,  30";  "  dumpish- 
ness,"  61;  dropsy  and  in- 
fantile bowel  complaint,  27; 
crushed  foot,  etc.,  28,  (see 
Cancer  and  Mrs.  Eddy's  ad- 
vertising methods). 


Damages,  (see  civil  liability). 

Danger  of  Eddy  ism,  (see  Chris- 
tian Science). 

Darwin,  comparison  of  Mrs. 
Eddy  with,  168. 

Death,  certificates  of,  86,  108, 
(see  Manslaughter). 

Deformity,  a  belief,  22, 


186 


INDE^. 


Delilah,  leads  victims   to  Cer- 
berus, 58, 
Denf  s  case,  14. 
Veniistry,  a  branch  of  medicine, 

138.  139. 

Diagnosis,  physicians  err  in,  12; 
immorality  of  medical,  24; 
Mrs.  Eddy's  certain,  16"; 
by  Christian  Scientists,  16", 
loi;  Mr.  Norton's  explana- 
tion of,  65,  170,  (see  Dis- 
cernment); need  of,  22. 

Diet,  care  in,  condemned  16", 
20;  unscientific,  24. 

Diphtheria,  exposure  of  children 
to  by  Faith  curer,  26. 

Diplomas,  poor  standards  of 
medical  qualification,  128, 
141;  Mrs.  Eddy's  scruples 
as  to  hers,  51;  medical,  139 
seq. 

"Discernment,"  equivalent  of, 
diagnosis,  16". 

Discord,  the  nothingness  of 
error,  23;  is  discord,  171, 
(see  Norton). 

Discovery,  Mrs.  Eddy's  Avas 
"hopelessly  original,"  47. 

Disease,  (see  Norton). 

Diseases,  conscious  beliefs  of 
unconscious  mind,  dream 
shadows  and  growths  of 
illusion,  20,  22;  feigned  and 
self-limited,  66;  non-exist- 
ent, 21;  to  be  argued  with, 
21,  22;  cured  by  Mrs. 
Eddy's  book,  21;  mortal 
mind,  100;  unintelligent,  21. 

Disingeniiousiiess,  of  Christian 
Scientists,  104. 

Diss  de  Bar,  the  adventuress,  35. 

Draughts,  "  harmless  to  scien- 
tists," 25. 

Dreams,  Mrs.  Eddy's  history  a 
record  of,  43,  44,  45. 

Dresser,  H.  W.,  Arena  article  on 
Mrs.  Eddy,  38. 


Dropsy,  cured  by  Mrs.  Eddy, 

28. 
Drowsiness,    caused    by    Mrs. 

Eddy's  book,  3on,  61, 
Drugs,    use    of  shows  lack   of 

faith  in  God,  24,  58. 
Druggist,  (see  Apothecary). 
Dying,  restored  to  life,  28. 


E 

Eating,  unnecessary,  29. 

Eclectics,  (see  Schools  of  Medi- 
cine). 

Eddy,  Asa  B.,  marriage  to  Mrs. 
Patterson,  44;  first  pupil  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  to  display  sign 
of  Christian  Scientist,  45; 
death  of  from  poison  men- 
tally administered,  45". 

Eddy,  Ebenezer  J.  Foster,  52. 

Eddy,  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Glover 
Patterson,  autobiography, 
37;  advertising  methods, 
27,  28,  36,  6on,  61,  62; 
admitted  to  church,  41; 
advises  disciples  to  charge 
fees,  etc.,  56;  admits  that  her 
disciples  are  not  fit  to  treat 
surgical  cases,  28,  64,  172; 
boastfulness,  17,  18,  19,48, 
49.  5O'  57 '•  certainty  of 
diagnosis,  i6n,  99;  child- 
hood early  studies,  40,  41, 
42,  99;  compared  with 
Cagliostro,  67;  with  Lydia 
Pinkham,  60;  danger  of  her 
teachings,  37;  disparage- 
ment and  denunciation  of 
P.  P.  Ouimby  and  all  sys- 
tems of  treating  the  sick, 
23,  24,  38,  47;  disdain  of 
Lindley  Murray,  43;  dis- 
courages all  study  except 
of  her  book  and  the  Bible, 


IKDEX. 


187 


25,  54;  Defines  infringe- 
ment of  her  copyright  as 
"theft,"  48;  experiments 
on  herself  with  poisons, 
45";  forgets  all  she  ever 
learned  from  books,  42; 
first  person  to  interpret  the 
scriptures,  48,  49;  gains  in 
substance,  50;  forgets  her 
grammar,  42,  43,  60;  high 
potency  homeopath,  16,  20, 
IGO;  "  hopelessly  original," 
47;  hears  mystic  voices,  40; 
humorous  sense,  38;  "in- 
telligent ease"  in  facing 
about, 39,  40;  ignorance,  42, 
99;  incoherence,  19;  mar- 
riage, her  views  of,  46;  un- 
necessary to  procreation, 
46,  47;  to  Col.  Glover,  42; 
to  Mr.  Eddy,  44;  to  Dr. 
Patterson,  43;  her  mar- 
riages were  dreams  and 
shadows  that  declined,  44; 
mathematical  logic  of  her 
teaching,  40;  her  methods, 
21,  29,  82,  84,  loi; 
"mother,"  her  title  of,  40; 
more  than  mortal,  40,  49; 
her  poetry,  18,  36,  43,  59; 
her  weird  rhetoric,  58,  59; 
her  spiritual  grace  of  divine 
origin,  39;  scriptures  read 
through  belief  in  eyesight, 
57 ;  summary  of  her  system, 
100,  104;  shadow  not  grow- 
ing less,  50;  separation  of 
years  from  her  child,  43; 
unselfishness  in  accepting 
large  fees  divinely  sug- 
gested, 52,  53;  teaches  that 
prayer  to  personal  God  is 
injurious,  27;  vagueness  of 
thought  and  vulgarity  of 
expression,  18,  19,  58;  vin- 
dictiveness  toward  P.  P. 
Quimby,      24,      38,      (see 


Agnosticism,  Certificates, 
Christian  Science,  College, 
Pantheism). 

Education,  Mrs.  Eddy's,  lost 
upon  discovery  of  Chris- 
tian Science,  42;  unneces- 
sary, harmful  and  distaste- 
ful' to  "Scientists,"  54, 
116;  purpose  of  medical 
laws  to  ensure,  115,  175; 
(see  medical  laws  and  legis- 
lation) in  England  prior  to 
apothecaries  act,  156,  (see 
Medical  Education;  Health, 
and  Anatomy,  Study). 

Electricity,  administration  of  as  a 
remedial  agent  is  practice 
of  medicine,  81. 

EryximachuSy  cure  of  hic- 
coughs, medical  theory  of 
harmony,  23. 

Exami7iations,  (see  Medical 
Boards,  etc.). 

Exercise,  disapproved,  20,  24, 
47;  does  not  increase  mus- 
cular power,  24. 

Experience,  medical  treatment 
should  accord  with,  13,  73. 

Eyes,  reading  not  done  by,  57. 


Faith,  affects  bodily  con- 
dition, 12,  20. 

Faith  Cure,  ridiculed  and  con- 
demned by  Mrs.  Eddy,  38, 

47. 

Fear,  affects  body,  12. 

Fees,  of  Christian  Scientists, 
56,  81,  83,  113;  aid  cure  of 
the  sick,  55;  for  Mrs. 
Eddy's  tuition  divinely  in- 
spired, 52,  53;  and  un- 
selfishly accepted,  43;  as 
element  of  medical  prac- 
tice, no. 

Felo7iy,  intent  as  element  of,  'j^^ 


188 


INDEX. 


'J'],  (see  Manslaughter  and 
Suicide). 
Fever,   Mrs.   Eddy's,  41;    Col. 
Glover's     death    from    in- 
sidious disease  yellow  fever, 

43- 
Fishbone,   in  child's  throat    as 

test  of  ••  Science,"  65,  (see 

Norton). 
Flannel,    less    protection    than 

mind,  25. 
Food,  not  necessary   to  support 

life,  29;  depriving   a  child 

of,  criminal,  29. 
Fractures,  cured  by  Mrs.  Eddy, 

but  to  be  avoided  by  her 

disciples,  28. 
Forgetfulness, Mrs. Eddy's,  after 

discovering  her  '  •  Science," 

42. 
Frederic,    Harold,  case  of,  33, 

69. 

G 

Galileo,  12,  13. 

Garrison,  Wm.  Lloyd,  178. 

Gehazi,  Christian  Scientist, 
compared  to,  84. 

Glover,  Col.  Geo.  W.,  first  hus- 
band of  Mrs.  Eddy,  42,  43. 

Godliness,  mystery  of  unlocked, 
by  Mrs.  Eddy,  48;  no  mor- 
tal could  have  unlocked  it, 
49. 

Gnosticism,  confused  with  ag- 
nosticism, 42. 

Grammar,  Mrs.  Eddy's  weak- 
ness in  English,  42,  43,  60. 

Grocers,  of  same  guild  with 
apothecaries,  146. 

H 

Hahnemannism,  decadence  of. 
94,  176;  differentiated  from 
Christian  Science,  176;  high 
potency     theory     starting- 


point  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  16,  100; 
properly  ridiculed,  179. 

Hale,  Lord,  (see  Manslaughter). 

Halford,  Sir  Henry,  on  apoth- 
ecaries act,  132. 

Harmony,  Aristophanes  and 
Eryximachus  discuss,  the 
somethingness  of  Truth, 
substitute    for   physiology, 

23. 

Healing  sick.  Christian  Science 
has  no  distinct  efficacy  in, 
64. 

Health,  treatises  on  cause  sick- 
ness, 25,  47,  172;  is  Mind, 
100. 

Health  Laws,  purpose  of,  14, 
(see  Constitutionahty,  Leg- 
islation, Medical  Laws). 

History,  useless  except  to  illus- 
trate truth,  46. 

Holmes,  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell,  on 
Berkeley,  13;  Judge  Oliver 
Wendell,  (see  Manslaugh- 
ter). 

Hoineopathy,  (see  Hahneman- 
nism,Medical  Schools);Mrs. 
Eddy's  starting-point,  16, 
20,  100;  denounced  by  Mrs. 
Eddy,  23;  agrees  with  other 
medical  systems  in  accept- 
ing the  teachings  of  general 
science  and  reality  of  sick- 
ness, 176. 

Homeopathists,  aid  passage  of 
N.  Y.  Medical  Law,  95,  143; 
not  to  be  classed  with 
Christian  Scientists,  117; 
dissensions  among,  94,  (see 
Schools  of  Medicine). 

Homicide,  (see  Manslaughter); 
compared  with  quack  prac- 
tices, 125. 

Hope,  aftects  body,  12. 

"  Hopeless  originality,"  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  discovery,  47. 

Hmnor,  Mrs.  Eddy's,  38. 


INDEX. 


189 


Humbug,  of  Christian  Science, 
65,  loi,  172. 

Hunger,  a  mental  impression, 
29. 

Hutitoon,  Mehitable,  hears  mys- 
tic voices  call  Mary  Baker, 
40. 

Hydrophobia,  Crous's  cure  for, 
70. 

Hygiene,  denounced  by  Mrs. 
Eddy,  i6n,  20,  24,  47. 


Ignorance,  Mrs.  Eddy's,  exam- 
ples of,  18,  42,  43,  48,  59, 
60,  99. 

Illinois,  Medical  Laws  of,  82"^ 
134.  142. 

Immortality,  already  here,  29. 

Incoherence,  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
writings,  19". 

Infants,  folly  of  bathing,  24. 

Insanity,  no  defence  of  Christian 
Science,  32. 

Iowa,  (see  Manslaughter). 

Irish,  happiness  of  emigrants  in 
filth,  24. 


James,  Professor,  178,  179. 
Jenkins,  case  of,  148. 
Jenner,  12,  13. 
Jesus,  (see  Christ). 


Keithley's  case,  74. 

Kerosene,  malpractice  by  use 
of,  j6. 

Kershaw's  case,  69,  (see  Man- 
slaughter). 


Law,  affects  practices,  not  the- 
ories and  religious  beliefs, 


30,  34,  86,  96,  (see  Legisla- 
tion and  Medical  Laws). 

Laws,  regulating  medical  prac- 
tice, reports  of  contagious 
diseases,  etc.,  in  New  York, 
106. 

Legislation,  Bentham  on,  128; 
favorable  to  Christian  Sci- 
ence, 33,  178  to  181;  neces- 
sarily imperfect,  128;  need 
of  to  control  "Scientists" 
doubtful,  33,  90,  114,  180; 
not  confined  to  exact  sci- 
ences, 180;  obstacles  to 
medical,  137;  purpose, 
scope  and  limits  of,  (see 
Law  and  Medical  Laws). 

Liberty,  Religious,  (see  Reli- 
gion). 

Liability,  of  Christian  Scien- 
tists, (see.  Penalties,  Man- 
slaughter, Christian  Scien- 
tists). 

License,  to  practice  medicine, 
(see  Medical  Laws). 

Lobelia  inflata,  Thomsonian 
remedy,  72. 

Long,  St.  John,  quack  convicted 
of  manslaughter,  31;  ladies 
of  rank  testify  to  his  cures, 
88. 

Lovett,  Ezra,  death  from  Thom- 
sonian treatment,  71,  72. 

Lunatic,  anecdote  of  Bishop 
and,  63. 


M 

Malpractice,  in  medicine  lia- 
bility for,  30,  109,  III,  181, 
(see  Manslaughter). 

Manslaughter,  American  rule, 
73;  by  Baunscheidtismus, 
75;  constructive,  by  un- 
licensed medical  practi- 
tioner, 31,  72.  74,  ']'j\  cases 
of  Keithley  and  Rice,  74 ; 


190 


INDEX. 


of  Lovett  and  Thomson, 
71,  72;  Bemis  and  Pierce, 
76;  by  recklessness,  32,72, 
77,  114,  125;  by  substitut- 
ing negations  of  Christian 
Science  for  right  practice, 
32,  78,  114,  120,  166,  171, 
181;  duty  to  deceased  ele- 
ment of,  31,  33,  109,  112; 
Enghsh  rule,  33. 

Hale,  opinion  of  Lord,  72,  'j']\ 
Holmes,  opinion  of  judge, 
73  to  78;  intent  to  cure 
consistent  with  criminality, 
73'  ll'y  by  negligence,  32; 
offence  against  state  gov- 
erned by  different  rule  from 
that  of  civil  liability,  112; 
victim's  willingness  to  die, 
no' defence,  126,  (see  Sui- 
cide). 

Marshrosemary,  "coffee  "  of  the 
Thomsonians,  72. 

Marriage,  Mrs.  Eddy's  to  Col. 
Glover  a  dream,  43,  44;  to 
Dr.  Patterson  a  shadow 
that  declined,  44;  to  Mr. 
Eddy  a  blessed  spiritual 
union,  44;  unnecessary  for 
procreation,  47;  celibacy 
preferable,  46;  convenient, 
pleasant  or  a  love  affair, 
46,  (see  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
Conjugal  Rights). 

Martyrdom,  cheap,  a  boon  to  the 
Scientists,  34,  182. 

Massachusetts  Metaphysical 
college,  (see  College). 

Material  History,  only  a  dream, 
44. 

Matter,  non-existent,  another 
name  for  mortal  mind, 
21. 

Matteran,  Q.  C,  on  apothe- 
caries act,  161. 

Matthias,  imposture  and  indict- 
ment of,  34,  35. 


Medical  Boards  of  Examiners, 
in  New  York,  14,  15,  135, 
144"  '.  do  not  demand  uni- 
formity in  practice,  14,  15; 
suggested  for  Christian 
Science,  16,  116,  117;  why 
not  for  Catholics  and  Prot- 
estants, etc.,  121. 

Medical  Education,  (see  Edu- 
cation, Study,  Diplomas). 

Medical  Laws,  approval  of  by 
courts,  14,  124;  argument 
against,  13;  do  not  pre- 
scribe one  system  of  prac- 
tice, 14,  15,  136,  140;  en- 
forcment  of,  86,  114,  129, 
130,  142,  162;  petition  for 
repeal  of,  N.  Y.,  89;  pur- 
pose and  scope  of,  89,  114, 
123  seq.,  134,  137.144.  175; 
widened  by  defining  medi- 
cal practice  will  include 
Christian  Scientists,  121; 
obstacles  to  enacting,  137. 

Medical  Practice,  (see  Practice 
of  Medicine). 

Medical  Schools,  (see  Schools 
of  Medicine). 

Medical   Societies,  function  of, 

133- 

Medical  Study,  impairs  natural 
gifts  of  healers,  89;  prereq- 
uisite to  license,  15,  85; 
Mrs.  Eddy's  denunciation 
of,  25,  54;  legal  regulation 
of,  140,  (see  Education, 
Study). 

Medical  Systems,  (see  Schools 
of  Medicine). 

Medical  Text-Books,  cause  dis- 
ease, 25. 

Medicine,  administered  by  sci- 
entists, 16";  practice  of, 
(see  Practice);  not  an  exact 
science,  12,  119;  right  ot 
physicians  to  dispense,  dis- 
puted,   147,     148;    use    of 


■■ 


INDEX. 


191 


condemned  by  Mrs.  Eddy, 
(see  Drugs). 

•' Mediumship,"  denounced  by 
Mrs.  Eddy,  23. 

Mental  stimulus,  affects  body, 
12. 

Mesmerism,  denounced  by  Mrs. 
Eddy,  23. 

Midwifery,  a  branch  of  medi- 
cine, 139. 

Mind,  (see  Mortal  Mind);  regu- 
lates your  childs  stomach, 
25. 

Mind  cure,  denounced  by  Mrs. 
Eddy,  23,  47. 

Misdemeanor,  unlicensed  prac- 
tice of  medicine  may  be  in 
U.  S.,  36;  is  in  New  York, 
106;  is  not  in  England,  31; 
practice  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence is  not  in  N.  Y.,  but  is 
in  Nebraska,  106. 

Missouri,  (see  Practice  of  Medi- 
cine). 

Mormon  cases,  64,  86,  87. 

Mortal  Mind,  does  not  exist, 
29;  another  name  for  mat- 
ter, 21;  is  disease,  100. 

"  Mother,"  title  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 
40. 

Mothers,  cause  diseases  of  chil- 
dren by  their  thoughts,  25, 
169,  171. 

Mother's  Darling,  and  Evening 
Prayer,  poems  of  Mrs. 
Eddy,  43,  60. 

Movement    cure,     denounced, 

23.  47- 
Murder,    malpractice   may   be, 

31,  78,  120. 
Murray,  Lindley,  grammar  of, 

42,  43,  (see  Grammar). 

N 

Nebraska,  medical  practice  in 
by  "  Scientists,"  82, 


Negligence t  (see  Manslaughter). 

New  York,  Boards  of  medical 
examiners,  14,  15,  133, 
144";  legislature  of,  buys 
hydrophobia  cure,  70; 
practice  of  medicine  in,  31, 
72,  82,  (see  Citations  of 
Smith  V.  Lane). 

Nexus,  importance  of  the,  46. 

Norton,  Mr.  Carrol,  eulogy  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  39;  defines 
disease  as  disease,  pain  as 
pain,  etc.,  171;  idea  of 
diagnosis,  65,  171;  lack  of 
faith  in  his  own  teachings, 
64;  lecture  in  Metropoli- 
tan Opera  House,  64,  165; 
offers  medical  proof  of  cer- 
tain cures,  167;  scouts  idea 
that  a  child's  malady  is  in 
the  maternal  mind,  169; 
"shelves"  test  questions, 
104,  113,  168,  169,  171; 
suggests  comparison  of 
Eddyism  with  philosophy 
of  Darwin  and  Spencer, 
168. 


Ohio,  practice  of  medicine  in, 
82. 

Onnonde,  Marchioness  of  testi- 
fies for  St.  John  Long,  89. 

Osteopathy,  81. 


Pain,  a  belief  without  adequate 
cause,  2t;  is  pain,  171. 

Paijtd,  Dr.  H.  M.,  reference  to 
Mrs.  Eddy's  homeopathy, 
2on. 

Pantheism,  Mrs.  Eddy's  under- 
standing of,  42. 

Patterson,  Dr.,  Mrs.  Eddy's 
second  husband,  43,  44. 


192 


INDEX. 


"Peculiar  People,"  deaths  of 
children  under  their  neg- 
lect, 87,  88. 

Penalties,  amenability  of  "Scien- 
tists "  malpracticing,  etc., 
to,  31,  33,  109,  114,  181, 
(see  Misdemeanor,  and 
Practice  of  Medicine). 

Petition,  for  repeal  of  N,  Y. 
Medical  Law,  89. 

Pharmacy,  a  branch  of  medi- 
cine, 138,  139. 

Physical  sejise,  is  error  and 
shadow,  50, 

Physic,  less  exact  than  surgery, 
136. 

Physician,  dispensing  of  drugs 
by,  147  to  150;  duty  to  ex- 
amine theories  candidly 
without  prejudice,  96,  137; 
may  follow  any  system,  15; 
hability  for  malpractice,  31, 
33,  109,  III,  (see  Man- 
slaughter); not  infallible, 
12,  13,  119;  should  not  be 
consulted  by  Christian 
Scientists,  23; 

Physiology,  anti-Christian,  23; 
a  cause  of  disease,  172; 
should  be  replaced  by  har- 
mony, 23. 

Pinkhain,  Lydia,  Mrs.  Eddy 
compared  to,  60. 

Placenta  pravia,  67. 

Poetry,  Mrs.  Eddy's  18",  36,43, 

59- 
Poison,  mental  administration  of 

to  Mr.  Eddy,    Mrs.  Eddy's 

immunity    to,     Cagliostro's 

offer  to  swallow,  45. 
Police  power,   medical  practice 

regulated  under,  14. 
Policy  of  enacting  laws  against 

Christian  Science,  90. 
Pop  ham,   Sir  John,  on  medical 

practice  of  apothecary,  149. 
Practice      of      Medicine,      by 


apothecaries,  132,  148, 
151,  155;  defined  in  Eng- 
land, 160;  in  general,  106, 
108;  Illinois,  82n;  Indiana, 
80;  Maine,  Michigan  and 
Missouri,  81;  Nebraska, 
82;  New  York,  79;  Ohio, 
82,  107;  Rhode  Island,  84, 
107;  Wisconsin,  81;  Mrs. 
Eddy's  opinion  of,  23. 

Prayer,  to  a  personal  God  is  in- 
jurious in  science,  27. 

Predestination,  rejected  by  Mrs. 
Eddy  in  childhood,  41. 

Prevention  of  Medical  aid,  (see 
Manslaughter). 

Prophylaxis,  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence, 25. 

Public  Health  Laws,  (see  Med- 
ical Laws)  in  New  York, 
106,  108. 

Publicity,  will  destroy  Christian 
Science,  36,  98,  121,  182. 

Puffendorf,  cites  Cadis'  judg- 
ment, 25,  no. 


Quacks,  their  argument  against 
Medical  Laws,  13;  com- 
pared with  homicides,  125; 
pretences  to  peculiar  gifts, 
85. 

Quackery,  (see  Charlatan);  not 
forbidden  by  law,  in;  in- 
crease of,  in  England,  after 
Rose's  case,  132. 

Quarles,  on  the  good  fortune  of 
physicians,  102. 

Quimby,  P.  P.,  disparaged  by 
his  former  patient,  Mrs. 
Eddy,  24,  38. 


Ram-cats,     Thomsonian 
edy,  71. 


rem- 


INDEX. 


193 


Readi7ig,  by  belief  in  eyesight, 

Recklessness,  in  treating  the 
sick,  (see  Manslaughter, 
Malpractice.Civil  Liability); 
of  "  Scientists,"  30". 

Registration,  of  physicians,  141. 

Religion,  not  to  be  used  to  cloak 
crime,  lust  and  greed,  opin- 
ion of  U.  S.  Supreme  Court, 
30,  86,  87;  of  Nebraska 
Court,  84;  Mrs.  Eddy's, 
unimportant  apart  from  its 
dangerous  practices,  22,  63, 
100,  102;  not  a  test  of  med- 
ical skill,  13,  121;  not  as- 
sailed by  preventing  the  ig- 
norant from  treating  the 
sick,  63. 

Retrospection  ajid  Introspection, 
Mrs. Eddy's  autobiography, 
Z7- 

Rhetoric,  Mrs.  Eddy's  wonder- 
ful, 58. 

Rhymes,  Mrs.  Eddy's,  (see 
Poetry). 

Rubbing,  denounced,  24. 

s 

Scandal  Cure,  78". 

Science  and  Health  with  Key  to 
the  Scriptures,  deeply  dip- 
ping into  last  edition  quali- 
fies to  cure  disease,  52; 
only  text-book  except  Bible, 
54;  drowsiness  and  vomit- 
ing caused  by  reading, 
30",  61. 

Science  of  Man,  Mrs.  Eddy's 
first  book,  cures  from  read- 
ing it,  copyright  infringed, 
47. 

«•  Schools  "  of  Medicine,  disap- 
pearance of  differences  with 
growth  of  exact  knowledge, 
144;     equality    before   the 


law,  134;  differ  from  Chris- 
tian Science  in  accepting 
results  of  learning  and  ex- 
perience, 117,  136. 
Scriptures,  inadequate  prior  to 
Mrs.  Eddy's  discovery,  48. 
Scruples,    Mrs.    Eddy's    as   to 

diplomas,  51. 
Senior,  twice  convicted  of  man- 
slaughter of  his  children  by 
refusing  medical  aid,  88". ' 
Senses,  their  evidence  not  to  be 
heeded,     57;     error      and 
shadow,  50. 
Sham,  of  Christian  Science  con- 
fessed  by  Mrs.   Eddy,  28, 
65,  loi,  172. 
Sickness  is  inharmony,  23,  (see 

Disease). 
Simon,  the  sorcerer,   Christian 
Scientists  compared  to,  82. 
Slander,  to  say  a  licensed  prac- 
titioner has  killed  a  patient 
by  malpractice,  74. 
Smallpox,  as  a  test  of  Christian 
Science,      65,      168,      (see 
Norton). 
Socrates,   12,  13;  ridicules  pre- 
sumption of  ignorance,  118. 
Soul,  is  substance,  50. 
Spencer,    Herbert,    comparison 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  with,  168. 
itualism,  denounced,  23. 
State   Boards,  of  Medical    Ex- 
aminers,      (see       Medical 
Boards);      suggested       for 
"Scientists,"  16.   116,  117. 
Strangulation,  of  child  a  test  of 
"Science,"    65,     168,    (see 
Norton). 
Study,  of  medicine   causes  dis- 
ease, 25;  of  general  science 
condemned,    54;    of   Bible 
with  science  and  health  all 
sufficient,  54. 
Substance,  is  soul,  50. 
Suggestion,  effects  "cures"  of 


194 


INDEX. 


Christian  Science,  loi,  104; 

children  not  subject  to,  103; 

eHminated  by  Mrs.  Eddy, 

104. 
Suicide,  a  felony  to  attempt,  or 

aid,  or  abet,  33,  1 12. 
Surgeons,  once  barbers,  149. 
Surgery,      more      exact     than 

physic,  136;  to  be  avoided 

by  Christian  Scientists,  28. 
Systems,     of     medicine,     (see 

Schools). 


TAR-water,   Bishop  Berkeley's, 

Tenement  house,  children  ex- 
posed to  contagion  in,  26. 

Test  questions,  in  Christian 
Science,  (see  Norton). 

Theft,  infringement  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  copyright  declared 
to  be,  48. 

Therapeutics,  no  system  favored 
by  law,  14,  15,  136;  should 
be  based  on  experience, 
112;  Mrs.  Eddy's  system 
of,  21,  22,  10 


Thinkers,  their  time  has  come, 

15- 

Thirst,  a  mental  impression,  29. 

Thomson,  Samuel,  founder  of 
"  Botanic  School,"  71. 

Trades-union  spirit,  not  scien- 
tific, 133,  156. 


Vagueness,  of  Eddyism,  19". 
Vis    medicatrix    natures,    force 

of,  12,  66. 
Vomiting,       due     to      reading 

Science    and    Health,    30, 

61. 

W 

Well-my-gristle ,        Thomsonian 

remedy,  71. 
Woodbury,    Mrs.  J.   C,  article 

in  Arena,  38. 
Worms,  caused  in  children  by 

maternal  thought,  25. 


Yellow  fever,  an 
ease,"  41. 


insidious  dis- 


BP953 .P98 

Christian  science  :  an  exposition  of 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


